The Wind over Ise
by mrcmc888
Summary: The year, 1179. A ruthless man takes power into his own hands. A rival seeks to stop him at any cost. An exile searches for the ones she loves. The greatest war that the Land of the Rising Sun will ever know for nearly a thousand years has begun, and one stray god is at the center of it all. (Historical Fiction- Speculative (not canon-confirmed))
1. I) The God and the Girl

**PART I. KUTAI (SUFFERING)**

Sometimes, when he closed his eyes, he could see them.

He could see their eyes, the eyes, the faces of a rapist, a murderer, a thief, a patricide. They were the sinners, the irredeemable. They did not deserve to live upon the earth; rather, if man could not punish them, then heaven would. Those were not human; no, they were no better than dirt and insects.

Yet he saw them, and they were scared. They shook. Their faces contorted with unspeakable horror; their eyes grew wide in the sockets. They could not speak, they could not move.

They wanted to live, not to die. They were afraid.

And as he cut them down, all of them, each and every one of them, he remembered how they would cry, how they would scream. He saw a terrified man begging for mercy, and another, and another. But his role was not to spare. His role was to punish. So they died, each by his hand, as they should have. Because they were wrong. There is right and there is wrong; he was taught that. One could be right or they could be wrong. And these…these animals were wrong, undoubtedly.

But still, he was confused. The wife of the man who had been murdered, she did not give thanks when he who took away her loved one's life was found dead. The girl who had been deflowered remained ashamed, even though the vile one who did so had long since had his life extinguished. Should the humans not be happy when something wrong was punished? The gods had declared those who commit heinousness should be repaid with heinousness.

Yet he still saw unhappiness. The lives of the people that he came in contact with were never the same.

A man, mad in his grief, would pray that someone would avenge his brother. But when his brother's killer's head was laid on his doorstep, he was frightened. His wish had come to pass, and yet he feared.

And yet, he the vengeful god would continue. He did not know why. He was not being forced to do those things. It was not his mandate or his duty; the people did not know his name as they did every other heavenly being. He was alone, and that is the way he wished it.

Perhaps he should die. It would be a fitting end, for one who has put so many mortals to the sword to end his life at the hands of someone else. But he could not die, for he was not human. He could talk like one, walk like one, and feel like one, but he was not human.

They would age and die, age and die, and age and die again. But he would still remain, unchanging, as the years passed.

He was created by them, but not one of them. He could never be one of them.

For even if he was slain, the cycle would turn and he would be born over and over, each more painful than the last. As much as he wished it, he could not end that way.

If his memory disappeared from the minds of men, he would simply not be. He would first be and then he would not, as if he had never been at all.

But that would not happen, because of one far more powerful than he. One that he hated.

As long as that one lived, then he too would still be.

He wished not to be, yet he was.

The visions faded, and he saw her. He saw her in a grove, in a clearing, so beautiful with the voices of the choir of birds and a brook singing its flowing melody. She stood, her white robe furling about her ankles, her long pitch-dark hair brushing her shoulders with their gentle fingers. The mark on the back of her neck—she was _his_ , as she had always been.

He ran toward her. He called out her name, sweet on his tongue. She was here again. She, who had taught him what life was like for the first time, how to be happy, was here.

 _Sakura. Sakura._ The blossoms fell from the trees; they enveloped him in their fragrance. His heart pounded as he raced toward her. _Sakura_. It was a sound as wonderful as the trumpets of the heavens themselves.

He was growing ever closer, but still she did not appear to notice him. It did not matter to him. Rather, it was if he had not even noticed. Instead, he continued running onward, pushing toward the only soul he had ever loved.

Then she turned to face him. Her wide eyes caught his, and it was as if time stopped. Her hair blew gently in the breeze, around her face.

She opened her mouth, and in a soft, faint voice, said only, "Why did you abandon me?"

He stopped, agape. At once all his feelings disappeared into shock.

She repeated. "Why did you abandon me?" Her form was starting to contort into something unspeakable, something dark and terrifying that he wished he would never have to see again.

The name on his tongue became bitter, acrid, poisonous. _Tamanone. Tamanone._

The beautiful garden in which she stood was being stripped away piece by piece. In its place was a hellish chasm, and the figure that had once been so alluring was now a churning mass of nightmarish shadows, a massive, unblinking eye staring from its center.

Words sounded again, but now it was in a hellish tone, so infernal it could not be recognized by him. "Why did you abandon me?"

"…Yato?"

The monstrosity was calling his name. No. It wasn't her, he told himself. It wasn't her. But there was nothing he could have done; he was rooted to the ground, too frightened to even move a step.

The shadow spread above him, massive bloodshot eyes piercing him in their gaze, a gaping maw of a mouth opening.

"Smells good."

Then it rushed at him.

 _I am going to die here,_ thought the god.

His eyes snapped open. There was sunlight streaming onto his face; it was coming from a window to the left of him. Outside, he could hear the birds of the morning beginning to chirp. Slowly, awareness was coming back to him. He was laying on the hard wooden floor of the shrine storeroom, somewhere far out in the countryside, where he had been living for almost a month now.

There was something long and slow crawling along his forehead. He reached up and plucked off a disgusting-looking black creature with many yellow legs. Mukade. Highly venomous. The god stood up, still holding the squirming invertebrate by the midsection, threw it to the ground, and crushed it under his sandal.

Yato held his hands out in front of his face. They were still as solid as they had been days ago. He touched one arm with the other and felt smooth skin. He was still as corporeal as ever. He rubbed his eyes and brushed his hair from around his face. Then, he sat down on the dusty floor of the storeroom and sighed.

 _Why am I still here?_ he thought to himself.

He knew why. Because of that man. But he had no one and nothing he wanted to live for anymore. Yato slumped down, his shoulders sagging. He had been created a god of calamity, but he didn't want to be one. He wanted to be a human. He had seen all the seasons of their lives pass, good and bad, and he wanted to experience them too. But he couldn't. His father called on him to kill, so all he could do was end those precious lives he wanted to know more about.

That was, until her. His time with Sakura had taught him so much, but mainly it had taught him what love felt like, and what right and wrong meant. She taught him to be a force for good, not for evil. And then that man deceived him, tricked him into saying the one word that would end his happiness…

Yato never wanted to go back to his father again.

So he had run away. This part of the country was sparsely settled; once the Emishi had lived here, but they had long since been driven out to the north. However, he was defenseless. He possessed no weapon, and even though he had sought out a rural area to avoid them, he knew it was only a matter of time before one of those monsters, the poor corrupted souls, found him.

All of a sudden, he heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps behind him. He did not turn to see; every now and then a shrine maiden would come into the storage building to collect something. They were unable to see him anyway, so his thought was that he should not even bother to look. Then he felt a hand brush his shoulder, and he looked up. When he did, he was shocked for a second, then his face immediately contorted with an expression of anger.

"Father requests your services." The speaker was a girl in the white robe of a Divine Weapon, her hair short, grinning. Seals of characters dotted her arms. Yato could feel her weapon form in his hands now as he looked at her; he did not want to remember that. All the blood, all the screams…she was his weapon of slaughter once, but no more.

"He can rot in the Underworld," Yato replied, trying to stare her down as fiercely as possible. She was unperturbed.

The girl giggled. "He doesn't want you immediately. But…he knows you're going to be back soon."

"Get out of here before I kill you, you Shinki whore." It was an empty threat and he knew it. He had no way to hurt her; he was completely powerless.

"We'll see about that. I'm just going to warn you, something bad might happen to you. Just like that last pathetic cur of a Shinki you had. You wouldn't want that to happen, would you?" The Stray grinned again, then immediately faded out before Yato had time to clench his teeth in anger.

Almost immediately, the roof of the storehouse exploded into bits of wood and debris.

Holding his hands above his head to block the debris, Yato could see through the dust the shape of a shadow creature, dotted with so many of those hideous eyes that appeared to be human but were open far too wide to ever belong to a man. It was just like that fateful day.

 _Ayakashi._

It was either run, or die. So the god chose to run.

* * *

 _Heian_

The wind blew the stiff tatami doors, rushing along every corner of the girl's room. Sitting on her bed, she shivered. A storm was coming, and she could feel it.

The green kimono she was expected to wear at the night's reception hung loosely on her shoulders. She didn't want to put it on, nor to do up her hair: it drooped down at her sides. It felt wrong to her. She was only thirteen, soon to be fourteen. Her nurse was constantly reminding her that she was a woman now and must behave in a womanly manner. But it didn't feel right to her. She couldn't chase birds or play in the garden with the servants' children anymore.

Instead, she would be dressed up and painted like a doll, made to sit at attention while nobles three times her age, so intimidating, came to judge her. She could see them now, their eyes boring into her, making her feel worthless. They scared her.

But the one person that she could feel comfortable around was her brother, the young man who now sat on the Emperor's throne as his own man, with no regents speaking in his ear. She had not known her parents; her mother died in childbirth and her father, her nurse said, had been too infirm to rule for a long time. Sometimes she got the feeling that she wasn't being told everything, but she didn't press the issue. It was not a royal princess's place to be opinionated. As much as she hated it, she must only speak when spoken to.

And her brother had helped her so much. He was calm when she was frightened, reassuring when she didn't know what to do. When it thundered outside, he would come into her bedchambers and watch over her until the morning came. When she cried, he would hold her tightly in an embrace and let her sob into his arms. When she was feeling moody, he would tell her a story about their mother, or something that he had learned off a priest. He was always collecting stories; she thought he'd be better suited to be a poet than an emperor.

At that time, a rap sounded on the door. The princess made no attempt to answer it. So presently the thin mat slid open gently. Peering through the door was her brother's kind face. He was dressed in the ceremonial robes of the supreme ruler, although to the girl he was just the same brother she'd grown up with, just with a different set of responsibilities.

"Aki?" he asked softly. "Can I come in?"

She only nodded and gave a small noise of consent.

When he reached her, he looked her all over. "Look at you," he tutted. "You're not even half ready and dinner is in thirty minutes. The head of the Taira is our guest. What would he think if the princess wasn't here? Especially since his youngest son is about to be ready to wed."

"I don't wanna get married," she protested as he wrapped her kimono around her small, lithe body and tied the rope that kept it in place with a bow.

"It's not all bad," her brother replied. "My wife and I didn't know what to think of each other at first, but now we quite like each other. You'll warm up to him."

Well, if her brother's empress was to be an example, she guessed that perhaps this whole marriage thing wasn't too bad. His wife was a young, beautiful Taira girl not too much older than Aki herself. The first time he had introduced her as his fiancée, the princess stood dumbstruck for almost a minute then ran away crying. She couldn't bear to see anyone else take her brother away. But little by little, the empress tried her best to convince her new sister-in-law to like her. It took gifts, jokes, and a few nights nursing a fever back to normal, but eventually Aki accepted her as part of the family too.

The young emperor brushed her hair with a comb before folding it on top of her head and then back again. "Do you remember why your mother named you Aki?"

She had heard this particular story many times.

"Because when you were born, the leaves outside the window were turning golden and red and orange and all different colors. And when she held you for the first time, she looked at you and she said, 'She will be as beautiful as the Nara autumn'."

Her brother was busy painting the white makeup on her face. It was too cold. Aki winced.

"I wish she was here to see her prediction come true. Someday you'll be the most beautiful woman in all of Japan."

He liked to flatter her. Aki didn't think she was ugly, but she was hardly the radiant beauty that her brother said she was. Just in the streets of the capital and at receptions, she'd seen far more noble girls who were more breathtakingly gorgeous than she could ever hope to be. Whereas she, if she was not in expensive clothing, could probably be mistaken for a servant or apprentice.

He placed the ornamental bow in her ceremonial hair bun, then stepped back. "All done. Cheer up, Aki-chan. All the Taira jaws are going to drop when they see you for the first time."

For the first time since the morning, she giggled. "Lady Tokuko said you'd make a better housewife than she would."

Her brother's boyish face reddened and he looked down. As he did so, a lock of his silver hair fell from under his cap and in front of his eyes. "I should tell her not to say that around you."

Then he took her hand and led her forward. "Come on, let's go."

The empress was waiting outside the door, in a silk kimono the color of fire. She smiled at Aki, who ran to her and hugged her. "How is my little princess?"

"Big Brother was mad at you."

"I heard what you two were saying in there. He's just embarrassed."

"You shouldn't be saying things like that to her," he huffed. "You're corrupting a kid's mind."

"What about Toku-chan? Is he fine?"

"He's doing great. He can walk easily now, but he's still too young to come to receptions. You'll have to come play with him tomorrow."

Prince Tokuhito was Aki's nephew, only three years old, and the boy who would someday sit the throne just like his father. She remembered when he was just a newborn. Now he was walking, but he'd only started learning to talk. It was nice to have a little one around to cheer her up.

The young couple and the princess turned to walk into the great hall, passing through the gardens as they went. It was the flowering time of the cherry trees. The pink blossoms drifted toward the ground, filling the air with a wonderful fragrance. As she watched one fall, she reached out a hand. The petal lit in her palm. She studied it for a second; this was the first time she had ever caught one out of the air. It was beautiful; pure white but then a splash of pink on the outside, like a calligrapher had taken his pen to it.

"It's good luck," her brother commented. "If a cherry petal falls on you, as long as you keep it you'll be safe from harm. Just keep it on you. I won't tell anyone."

Aki said nothing, but slipped the petal inside her kimono and walked onward.

Finally they reached the main hall, filled with dignitaries of every kind, all in their finest silk. So many people intimidated her, but her brother and Tokuko were with her, so it would be all right.

At the place of honor was an old, wizened man with an aquiline nose and piercing eyes to match. At first glance, Aki was scared of him. He didn't look like a very kind person to her.

Her brother, however, was unperturbed. "Greetings, my lord Kiyomori. I pray that the services are up to your standards."

The old man replied in a raspy voice, "It is good to see you again, Emperor. Your father is doing well; he is still bedridden but it appears he is starting to come out of his stupor. May the gods grant him a speedy recovery."

The emperor nodded in agreement. Aki wasn't sure what to think. This man was saying pleasant things, but the tone, the look on his face, just everything about him didn't look pleasant to her. What was more intimidating were the ten burly, armored guards standing behind him. They weren't friendly looking like the castle soldiers; it was if they had no emotions, only coldness. They just held their hands at their sides and looked straight ahead.

To the right of him were two young men, who Aki assumed were his sons. The one to the left was very handsome, his cornflower-blue hair drawn up over his head with the eyes to match. He looked to be the complete opposite of his father; Aki might not mind it if this was the man she was going to marry. The one to the right had hair the color of wheat and eyes like emeralds. He was also handsome, but he wore a knowing half-smile that seemed to be mocking. It was like he was analyzing her without her even speaking a word yet.

The old man continued. "And you too, my daughter. It is good to see you again. Your father sends his regards; alas, he is away in the north right now so he could not come to greet you."

Tokuko bowed her head. "The same to you, Beloved Father."

All of a sudden, his piercing gaze caught hers and Aki swallowed, a lump forming in her throat.

"And who might this be?" he rasped.

"My lord, this is Princess Aki, my only sister. She has come of age to be wed. Aki-" (her brother swept a hand toward the old man) "this is Taira no Kiyomori, head of the Taira clan, the most powerful of the Four Noble Families, and Grand Chancellor of the Realm. He is my father-in-law."

"How do you do, Your Highness?" Kiyomori asked, smiling. It would have appeared friendly if it didn't seem like such a sneer.

"I-I am well, my lord," was all she could stutter out in the highest and softest voice.

"That is good to hear. These are two of my sons," he continued. "To my right is Takamori, my youngest." The noble young man with the crystal-blue eyes took another sip of tea and smiled at her before bowing his head. "He is sixteen, of marriageable age. It would be an honor for him to take Your Highness's hand."

Aki didn't honestly think that marriage was such a bad idea when she looked at the boy. He had the same kind eyes as her brother and Tokuko.

"It is so, then," her brother said. "Taira no Takamori is to become the husband of my sister. I have heard of his prodigal exploits in the field and his honor and wisdom, far beyond his age. I give my blessing."

He looked at Aki and it was as if her heart leapt in her chest. Now she definitely wasn't opposed to becoming a wife.

"To his right is Munemori, my second-oldest. His wife accompanies him." Said wife was a woman with a long, disdainful face. "He is my keeper of records and chief military strategist. Should you consider him for the title of chief general of the armies throughout the land, Your Highness, I would be very grateful."

The blonde man bowed his head.

"Duly noted, Lord Kiyomori," her brother said.

They took their seats at the table. The food was good, served in courses in the Chinese style, but even though it was a feast of the most exquisite quality, Aki could not bring herself to eat much. She could not bring herself to talk much, either, only answering any questions from the Taira patriarch with a "Yes, sir" or "No, sir". However, across the table, she noticed that Takamori wasn't eating a lot, either. Instead, he seemed to be trying to steal glances at her. She made up her mind to go talk to her new fiancée soon.

Presently dinner was over, and the servants cleared the table. Her brother had been talking to the aging Taira about something that she did not understand. Then she saw out of the corner of her eye someone quietly sit next to her. She turned to catch the brilliant blue eyes of the young Taira boy. Almost immediately, she had to refrain from gasping. They were even prettier up close. He caught her gaze as well, immediately went red in the face, and looked away.

"Um…my name's u-uh Taira no T-Takamori…and I guess we'll be…seeing a lot more of each other in the future…s-so I wanted to talk to you some…"

After finishing, he put his hand to his mouth, blushed even more, and breathed out as if it was a chore for him. Maybe he wasn't as confident as he looked. Still, it wasn't like that was a bad thing.

Aki laughed a little. "You're not the best with people, are you?"

"Well…Y-Your Highness, it's just that…I've never spoken to a woman my age…" Every part of Takamori's face was now scarlet, from the tip of his nose to his ears. He was obviously ashamed, but Aki found it kind of cute.

"Don't worry. I'm completely fine with that."

"T-thank you, Your Highness…"

Testing the waters a little bit, she slowly inched her hand next to his and touched it. When she did, he went ramrod straight as if he had just been struck by a lightning bolt. If he hadn't been sitting down, Takamori probably would have jumped ten feet in the air.

All her enjoyment at teasing her arranged bridegroom was interrupted by Taira no Kiyomori.

"Come, Your Highness," he said gravelly. "I have many matters that I would care to discuss with you. Let us walk in the garden. Come, Munemori, Takamori."

"As you wish, Lord Kiyomori." Her brother stood up. As he did and apologized to his empress for leaving them, Aki got a sudden feeling like her stomach was sinking into the ground. The duck that she had eaten felt terrible inside of her all of the sudden.

She didn't know what it was, but she had the distinct feeling that something awful was going to happen.

"Brother, I feel sick. Can I be excused?" Not even waiting for his reply, she jumped to her feet and ran off toward her room.

The dumbfounded emperor watched her go.

"That's a shame," Kiyomori croaked in an old, creaky chuckle. "She and my youngest seemed to have taken to each other. Maybe more progress will be made next time. Come, Your Highness, and let us discuss business over sake."

The young emperor acquiesced, and walking side by side with the Taira chief, his sons following and the escort of soldiers behind them, they entered the garden through which the emperor and his sister had passed earlier. The table at the center was being attended by a servant who poured from the glass bottle into two small saucers. The emperor and Kiyomori took seats.

Picking up his allotment, Kiyomori drank deeply. "It is delicious. Give my thanks to the brewer."

"The fruit of the fields of the Nine Circuits," the emperor replied. "Only the best for someone as distinguished as you, Lord Kiyomori."

"That is so, that is so. Now, I believe I have something that we have discussed previously. What of the Minamoto?"

"I have sent an inquiry into their conduct and I expect to visit them personally within the year."

"No, that won't do, I'm afraid, Your Highness. Were you not presented with enough evidence to confirm that the sons of Minamoto no Yoshitomo are traitors? I showed mercy fifteen years ago by exiling them instead of having them beheaded like their father. Yet I have evidence that Yoritomo, Noriyori, and Yoshitsune have conspired with your younger half-brother Prince Mochihito to have you killed and to put him on the throne. All the cursed Minamoto should be arrested, and the Prince should be cutting his own stomach right now, not living peacefully at the foot of Mount Hiei, scheming and plotting as a snake, so treacherous as to slay his own brother. He is a shame to the country."

"Lord Kiyomori," the emperor replied, nervously taking a sip of sake, "the Four Noble Families must be in balance. I cannot declare a house head a traitor against gods and men without allowing him to be heard, and hearing what the Fujiwara and Tachibana have to say on the matter. As for the Prince, I cannot believe that he would do such a thing. My brother Prince Mochihito loves his country and his people, and indeed he would be a far better ruler than I. Just as you said it would be a great shame upon him if he was to have me murdered, so it would be the same for me if I committed the same acts unto him. I cannot take the word of an advisor, even one as wise as you, o Lord Kiyomori, to send my own flesh and blood to his grave. Should I then not be every bit as evil as you say he is? Should I then not be a fratricide as well? I apologize, my lord, but my brother the Prince shall be heard before any decision is made. Should I send an innocent man to the grave, especially one of my family, I will not forgive myself."

"Fujiwara?" the old man growled, suddenly angry. "Tachibana? Should we be forced to heed a family that died off eras ago? They are powerless and you know it. They have no influence over the family I rule and myself. Are you blind? Do you not see the snake that you carry in your bosom? While you attempt to follow your own moral code and let men who anyone with sense could tell were guilty lie to you about their treachery, that snake will already have bitten your head off, laughing as he sits in the throne that rightfully belongs to you!"

"My lord, it is what the gods have commanded to the first Fujiwara in the tenth year of the reign of Tenji. It is our code of law that has stood for five hundred years, and it binds all men, even the most powerful. I cannot be so prideful as to consider myself above that law, and it would be wise if you would not either, with all respect, my lord. The affairs of my family are mine and mine alone."

"Enough!" Kiyomori roared, suddenly standing up and throwing his saucer aside. "You would listen to a bunch of liars? You say it is not my business? I, who made you emperor? I, who own your life? Remember, you were born of my sister's womb, so I am still your elder by blood. I removed your father because he was not up to my standards. I can easily do the same to you."

"Lord Kiyomori, I beg you…calm yourself and be civil…"

His voice shook with rage, losing its civilized edge. "I always knew you were a flake. Just like daddy, eh? Any son of Go-Shirakawa's is soft in the head. It's time I end this experiment. The throne belongs to the Taira now. And I'll crush the Minamoto, no matter what anyone's damn gods have to say about it. If they are angry, I challenge them. Smite me with all your fury."

The old man grinned widely. "You know why that won't happen? Because the only god on this earth isn't a giant throwing thunderbolts down from the sky."

The emperor's eyes had gone wide as saucers.

"The only god on this earth is me." Kiyomori's face was twisted in a sickening smirk. "And when you choose to oppose a god, you pay with your life. Perhaps your son won't make the same mistake you did, and obey those with more power. As for now, I'll keep the throne warm for him."

"What?" The emperor leaped to his feet. "You promised me you wouldn't lay a hand on him! Kiyomori, you bastar-"

"Munemori, put the dog out of his misery."

He didn't even get to finish his words before the flaxen-haired man had drawn the sword concealed under his kimono and pierced him through the back with it. The emperor's sentence turned into an unintelligible retching of blood. Then, he slumped over on the blade and fell to the ground.

Munemori did not change his expression from that same confident half-smile as he deftly cut the throat of the winebearer before he could even cry out, then sheathed his blade.

The youngest Taira's eyes were wide with horror and his arms were limp at his sides. "Beloved Father…" he barely managed to whisper out. "What have you done…"

"Remember what I told you, fool boy," Kiyomori lectured, his calmness returning. "The victors are the powerful. Today you saw why that is true."

"Shall I commence the plan, Father?" Munemori grinned.

"Indeed. Open the gates and let our men in. Burn the whole place to the ground. Spare none if they are not of our number."

"What of my sister and the boy?" Munemori asked his father.

"Tokuko is better alive than dead. I can always find some use for her. As for the young Prince, he is to be exalted, raised high on the throne as the purge is occurring. Let him preside over the burning of this odious place, thick with Minamoto stench, and then do the same for rebuilding the palace, more glorious than before."

"And as for the Princess, Beloved Father?"

"She is too stubborn to be of any use. Leave her alive and all she will do is seek revenge for her insect of a brother. She may even conspire with the Genji. Kill her with the rest of them."

Munemori nodded his head before running ahead, the guard following him.

Still shaking, the youngest of the clan head's sons stood in the same place he had been when he witnessed the young ruler lose his life.

"Don't just stand there, fool boy! Any honorable man your age would be proud to serve his father in combat. Look, your brother has already gone forth. How I wish you had his resolve! Go now, unsheathe your sword, and do as I tell you!"

Takamori did none of those things, but instead replied, his voice still trembling, "F-Father, you killed the Emperor…you killed your son-in-law…you killed my cousin…how will the gods ever forgive such a thing?"

"Do you think that I give a care about that? Leave me at once, or you shame yourself enough to no longer be my child. And if that happens, I will hang your head alongside those of the sons of Yoshitomo. Begone!"

Still shaken, Takamori tried his best to draw his sword and run to join the slaughter that was starting. The screams of the palace guards, the servants, and some of the court officials and dignitaries could already be heard. The first plume of smoke was already rising above the walls of the courtyard as the first building was set aflame.

The old man threw back his head, and seemingly to challenge them, stared straight at the heavens.

"The gods will not forgive me? Pathetic. That which does not exist cannot lay a hand on me, or this country that now is mine."

* * *

Aki didn't know how long it had been before she started noticing the orange glow outside through the bamboo-paper walls of her room. She perked up immediately, then sniffed. There was something strange in the air. Was that smoke? Her brother didn't say anything about a roast, but the adults were probably out there enjoying a roast pig right about now. She groaned. If she had missed her favorite food because of her stomach acting up.

Suddenly, her door slammed open, and she drew back in shock. Her betrothed stood in front of her, panting, dirt streaked down his cheeks and neck. His hair was disheveled, and his eyes, which were once so calm, were filled with terror. Behind him, she could see smoke billowing through the air. With a gasp, she realized the palace was burning. Screams rang out in the distance. Aki's mind was racing. What had happened out there? What was going on?

"Your Highness…my father has overthrown the Emperor…" He panted, unable to say anything more. "The Empress and the Prince are being held captive…I don't know about your brother. Everyone else is going to be…killed…even you…my father's men are killing everyone…he sent me to kill you…"

She noticed the sword he held limply in his right hand, and Aki's eyes went as wide as saucers. That man was going to have her killed…and take her away from her brother…her future…

"You need to run before they kill you…I can't delay them for much longer."

All of the sudden, another man appeared in the doorway, wearing the black of a palace guard. A gash was opened above his right eyebrow, which had been swollen shut with a strike from some blunt object. An arrow had pierced his thigh, and he was limping. Grimacing, he pulled it out and it clattered to the floor. She recognized him immediately. It was the man who had been her personal guard for all of her life. His beard was tinged with gray now, but since she didn't remember her father, he was one of the ones, along with her brother, who handled those tasks when she was young. And now he was injured…

"By the gods…" she whispered. "Nobushige, what have they done to you…"

Hurriedly, Takamori attempted to explain. "I found him wounded by the corpses of two of my father's army. He told me he was sworn to protect you. I don't know why he decided to trust me, but I'm glad he did."

"I am deeply sorry, Your Highness," the guard gasped. "There was nothing I could do but trust this boy, even if he is the flesh and blood of that power-drunk demon…"

As the princess sat on her bed, speechless, Nobushige entered the room, and she saw with horror that there was a body over his shoulder. He dropped it on the floor, and Aki stared straight into the eyes of her nurse, slit in the throat.

As she opened her mouth to scream, her guard clamped a hand over her mouth. "You mustn't, Your Highness, or you and the Taira boy are both dead!"

"Please," Takamori begged weakly, bowing his head. "I know that I am your enemy, but I beg of you, please, sir, take her to safety…I would never be able to forgive myself if I let her die…"

"You do not have to plead," the guard replied. "It is my duty, noble sir. Climb onto my shoulders, Your Highness and I will protect you anyone who tries to harm you."

In a single move, the youngest son of Taira no Kiyomori hugged her tightly. "May the gods keep you safe until we meet again."

All Aki could do was cry.

Then Nobushige lifted her onto his shoulders, and took off with her. The surroundings were blurred; the speed, her tears, everything in her mind. He was breathing heavily, limping more and more as his run went on. He had to be exhausted. Yet he was giving up himself to protect her…She couldn't stop her tears. She sobbed as the buildings went by, burning in many different colors.

There were cries behind them: "It's the princess! After both of them!" Heavy footsteps clattered on the ground. Still, the red gate that marked the boundary of the palace was approaching. They would be safe. For the first time, her heart soared.

Then the soldiers she had not noticed surrounded them from the front.

At least fifteen men held their swords in stance. Nobushige gently put her down. "I'll hold them off, Your Highness. Run! NOW!"

"I can't leave you here!" she screamed back. Her crying, which had stopped, returned with a force, blurring her vision again. She was going to lose everyone she cared about in less than an hour.

"If you don't run, my last duty will be in vain! Go!"

 _My brother, Lady Tokuko, little Toku, my nurse, Takamori, and you, Nobushige…what have I done that's so awful that all of you have to suffer…dear gods, what have I done…_

Turning to the circle of Taira soldiers, her bodyguard commanded in a deep, powerful voice: "I did tell her to run, and there's not a damn thing any of you can do about it! If any of you Heike cowards want to chase her, you'll have to do it over my cold, dead body!"

"Why, that's exactly what I'll do," a cold voice replied. Taira no Munemori walked through the circle of soldiers. His sword was dripping red, and splotches covered his white and gold kimono.

"The Stone Wall of Satsuma, is it? I have heard of your prowess. It would be an honor to have this duel."

"The same to you, Wolf of the Heike. Never have I had the chance to fight one of such high renown." He drew his sword as well, but it was shaky, and he was grimacing from pain. Munemori, on the other hand, was completely calm.

 _He's going to fight like that? He'll be killed!_

"All of you," Munemori commanded, pointing toward the soldiers, "after her!"

They drew their swords and began the chase, and Aki snapped back to reality. She sprinted, running with every ounce of fear and energy left in her body, away from the palace which burned behind her. The tears streamed down her face and she could not stop them anymore. She was not there to see Nobushige fall for the last time, but in her mind she could imagine it clear as day. As the shouts of "LONG LIVE THE HEIKE!" were carried up on the flames, she sobbed.

The entire city was in a confused uproar. No one even stopped to look at the girl in the green kimono, running for her life. The soldiers were still after her, but they were heavy in their armor, and she was small and fast, ducking around corners and under people. She had reached the Rashomon gate before she realized they were not chasing her anymore. Once the proud entrance to the royal city, now the red paint flaked from the pillars and the guardhouse had collapsed in on itself.

Thankfully, at this night hour, there were none of the unsavory sort around that frequented it during the daytime. The only other person at the gate was a man who was passed out drunk, next to the girl as she sat down on the rotting wood of the guard tower's porch.

Suddenly, her stomach growled. She wanted some food…but to get food, she had to have money, didn't she? With a start, she realized she didn't have a single coin on her. She would starve if she didn't have food, and she couldn't hunt…

Then she noticed the drawstring bag in the man's hand. There had to be some money in there, right? But wait, that was stealing…but if she didn't, she'd starve…

There was no danger in taking the man's bag. He was drunk enough that a lightning strike an inch from his face wouldn't wake him up. Slowly, she reached out and took the bag, then opened it to find a few rice balls and some fruit. She sighed with relief. It was food. But she couldn't find any money…

Rooting around some more, she pulled out a small coin. _That's all?_ It could buy her a rice ball at most. Well, it was enough to last. She put the coin away and slung the bag over her back. What was she going to do next? There was no one on the road at the late hour. But as soon as she thought that to herself, she heard the rumble of wagon wheels and the heavy clip-clopping of oxen coming from the city. Relief washed over her. It was a farmer returning to his home. He could take her far away…

The wheels grew closer, and then suddenly she felt a sharp, clubbing pain, and Aki fell to the ground.

* * *

The Ayakashi was following Yato closely. He did not have the human problem of stamina to deal with, but then again, neither did the monster. The horrible shadow, black as the unlit night, gaped its mouth open, and in that awful voice repeated over and over:

" _Smells good. Smells good. Smells good_."

He reached out his mind to find a soul nearby. Any soul, a weapon…just one. But his search was in vain. He knew it. There wasn't going to be any dead out in the wilderness.

The thing was growing closer. It was useless; there was no way to fight the thing off. All the energy he had spent to get away from that man, and it would all be for nothing. He was going to wake up to the face of his father sneering at him, saying something like _I told you so_.

The trees cracked and broke as the thing sped through the sky after Yato, changing shape into a form more horrible than the last every time. It opened its maw, coming ever closer. It was almost upon him now.

A small shape, almost like a snowflake, drifted in front of him. It was a soul. All the way out here.

He reached forward and clenched it in his hand, and golden radiance began to stream around the god.

Steadily, he began a singsong chant. "I am called Yatogami, god of calamity, of destruction, of vengeance. I now take this wayward soul into my hands. I shapeth thee as my weapon for protection, my link to the souls of mortals. I holdest thy life and thou holdest mine. This bond between God and Shinki shall never be broken as long as the soul that I now take unto myself is protected from temptation and corruption. I, Yatogami, am the bearer of this Shinki. As long as this soul is in my service, I shall treat it with kindness, teach it no evil. I will not abuse my bound servant, but learn from this soul that was once mortal, to know justice and mercy. With this I namest thou Vessel, embodiment of power."

The Ayakashi had stopped overhead. It almost seemed to be frightened of the light. The radiance had gotten brighter as the god continued speaking the words of power. He closed his eyes.

"For all sin when they are yet mortal, but yea, all are redeemed in death. Be cleansed of thy human life and be thou joined with me in body, mind, and soul."

He took the hand that did not hold the soul and begin to draw a character in the air, that hung still with golden light. The Ayakashi was shrinking back.

"For since I was saved from death by thee, I do give this name. The Name, Sukune. The Vessel, Kyuuki. Come forth and expel this vast defilement."

The light grew so bright as to blind, and when it suddenly disappeared, the god was holding in his hand a gleaming sword of steel, flashing in the light of day. Yato stepped back and launched himself from the ground. With a single stroke, the Ayakashi was cleaved through the middle so quickly that the blade flash hung in the sky a second before the monster exploded into crystalline fragments.

That was a god's most important job: to fight the monsters that were birthed when a mortal died and the soul separated was separated from the sin. The soul would become a Divine Vessel of a god, a Shinki. But the sin would grow, multiply, kill, and cause chaos in the worlds both of the living and the divine.

He may have been a killer of men as well. But Yato would not let a good person fall to corruption. Such was the duty of a god. One who didn't follow that, at least, did not deserve to be worshipped.

He set alight on the earth of the Ise forest, and the blade he held in his hand shimmered and disappeared, changing form into a young man. He was tall, but he looked to be about twenty or younger, with a slender, hairless face and long silver hair that fell around his forehead and back. His ruby eyes were hidden somewhat behind this veil. He was dressed in the pure white robe that all Shinki wear when they are first created.

Yato spit, displeased. _Couldn't it have at least been a cute girl?_

The Shinki put his hand up to his forehead. "Where am I?" he murmured.

"You're in the forest outside the Uji shrine in Ise. Any questions?"

"Who are you?"

"Your master."

"Master?!" The Shinki sniffed out, visibly displeased. "Who says you're my master?"

"The heavens," Yato snapped. "Come forth, Kyuuki."

Immediately, the Shinki transformed into the sword and then back again.

"Now do you get it? Or am I just some crazy guy that you've met wandering out here after eating a couple too many mushrooms?"

"Why am I here?" the Shinki asked, even more puzzled.

"Because you're dead," Yato replied. He hated having to explain the same thing over and over again to new Shinki. But it couldn't be helped.

"Dead? Then why can't I remember anything?"

"Because you're _dead_ , genius. You're a spirit, not a brain."

"Then how'd I end up here, with you? And what are you anyways?"

Yato slapped a palm to his face. This guy was seriously wearing him out. "You got here because you're dead and I made you my Spirit Vessel. A Spirit Vessel, or Shinki, is a soul of someone who has died that a god uses to fight Ayakashi, monsters made of sin, and reward the good and punish the evil."

The Shinki looked Yato up and down and made a disgusted face. "What kind of god are you, then? You look like you're wearing a burlap sack. And you stink."

Yato could feel a vein in his forehead throbbing. "God of Ca-la-mi-ty, god of ven-ge-ance, Yato, the Cutter. Of. Men. Got that?"

"Never heard of you. You look more like the god of failure to me."

"If the pain didn't reflect back on me, I would punch you in the face right now."

"So, what do I do now that I'm stuck with a 'god' who smells like he was just rooting around in a pigsty? Actually, that's too harsh on pigs. I'm sorry, pigs. At least you were born a pig and not this guy."

"Look who's talking! What are you, twenty? You haven't got any meat on you anywhere! Are you sure the wind isn't gonna snap you right in half?"

Yato had apparently not noticed that he had quite the feminine face and build as well, or he had just ignored it to squabble like a couple of kids fighting over a piece of bread with the soul that not less than five minutes earlier had saved him from certain death. Then again, Yato wasn't well-known as a friendly god. In fact, he wasn't well-known as any god, but he preferred not to think about it that way.

"Anyways, I'm stuck with you, and you're stuck with me. So come on. I live at the shrine and I occasionally grant requests. Soon enough and you'll learn to like me."

"Not a chance."

"I think my weapon deserves a little bit of _respect training_ , doesn't he?" the god said through clenched teeth as the two began the long journey back to the great shrine of the eastern province.

* * *

She didn't know how long she had been asleep, but a series of bumps woke Aki up. When she came to, the first thing she noticed was that she was unnaturally cold.

As she opened her eyes, she noticed with a start that she was completely naked. Giving a squeak of embarrassment, she attempted to cover herself up, but she could not move her arms. That was when she realized both of her wrists were tied to the side of the wagon she found herself riding in. Gritting her teeth, she tried several times to tear her hands free from the thick hemp rope, but although the cart creaked loudly, it wouldn't budge.

A man at the front of the wagon, huge and ugly, turned his head and yelled "Quit makin' noise before I make ya stop for good!" He brandished a wooden club over his head. Turning back around, he murmured to himself, "Stupid brats. Them's should be glad they don' die on th' streets of Heian. 't least they be gettin' food on the farm."

 _Farm? Where are they taking me?_

All around her were all sorts of other children about her age, but some looked to be as young as eight and some as old as fourteen. They were all naked as she was, but most of them hung their heads and looked like they were just waiting for death.

"Where are we being taken?" Aki demanded indignantly.

"Dinn' I say SHUT YER TRAP?" the big man bellowed.

The man's companion riding one of the oxen, not as fat but just as unpleasant to look at, laughed harshly. "Don't get so mad at them. Anyways, you kids are getting a brand new lease on life. You get to replenish the farming population up north. They're in need of some new settlers. I mean there might be bears and frostbite and Emishi, but hey, you get meals for free!"

"Wait a minute! This is kidnapping! The local daimyo will have your head for this!" Aki cried.

"Kidnapping?" the thin man sneered. "Of a bunch of street urchins? No one alive cares about you anyways. Hell, we could have just killed you and sold you to the butcher's. It would have been much easier, too. But since we're nice-" (the way he said it was absolutely dripping with dishonesty) "-you get to live for now."

"I'm not a commoner!" the princess shouted, getting even more angry. "I am of noble birth! My brother will hear about this, and he'll kill you!"

"Sure, sure," the thin man gloated. "I assume you own this too?" He pulled out a green piece of fabric. To her distaste, it was the kimono she had been wearing until she lost consciousness.

"That's mine! Give it back! You criminals! You low-born scum!"

"Can't steal what's already been stolen."

"Someday you're going to be killed! You evil men!"

The big man stood up, took a step, grunted, and swung his club against the side of the wagon, inches from Aki's hand. It splintered into pieces.

"Unless ya want this done to'ya, ya better shut yer brat mouth."

In his anger, he didn't notice that he had knocked the piece of wood holding Aki's right hand free. Within a second, she had wriggled her wrist out of the rope with both slavers none the wiser. It was a start.

She willed herself to think. _How do I get out of here…I know I knock the wood panels free, but I'm not strong enough to do it by myself…what do I break it with…_

 _It would be so much easier to think without all this bumping…wait...the bumps! The rocks!_

Aki had formulated a plan. It would probably take some luck to work, but it appeared that the gods of fortune had smiled upon her.

As the cart rounded a corner, about ten men in blue robes, some riding horses, others holding unsheathed swords, were waiting for them.

"This is Fujiwara clan land!" the man at their lead called out. "You are ordered to stop under suspicion of illegal detainment and enslavement!"

"Shit!" the thin man driving the oxen yelled. "Turn it around!"

It was Aki's opening. As soon as the cart was in its turn, she leaned with all her weight to the side of the vehicle. It would not have worked if the cart was level. However, it was on the inside of a turn and already high off the ground, so all it needed to topple over was one little imbalance.

Then the cart was on its side and she could hear the sound of wood cracking and splintering as the road tore into it. The sharp rocks ripped through the flimsy side of the wagon and scraped her raw on her back and her arms, but she did not cry out. Ahead, the oxen bellowed in terror, then they too lost their footing. The thin man was hanging on for dear life, but he fell to the the ground a second before the side of the beast he was driving came down on top of him. He didn't even have time to scream.

For some reason that she didn't know, Aki felt nothing at all to see a man die.

The big man had been thrown from the cart, too. As he lay on the ground unconscious, a trickle of blood coming from his head where he had hit the rock that knocked him out, the sound of horses' hooves rang in the distance. The samurai would soon be on him with their weapons drawn. The children would all be rescued, too.

Her left hand was still attached to the wood, though. She yanked it a first time, again, and then with all her might she pulled and the frayed rope came free. She tumbled out of the wagon which had come to a stop on its side after sliding for some distance.

As she picked herself up from the ground, she noticed something that had fallen next to her, thrown from the wagon in its last moments. It was her kimono, dusty and now torn, but she didn't care. Aki quickly covered herself with it. Then as she started into the woods, she noticed something gleaming on the ground. It was the coin she had taken from the drunkard in Heian. She scooped it up and continued running into the woods before the Fujiwara could even notice she was gone.

* * *

 _Three months later_

It was just as any other normal day for a god with no followers and no shrine until the girl burst through the door.

Yato was busy deciphering a scroll he had taken from the monks' library. It's not like they were going to miss it; they had hundreds more. He did think they should have been easier to understand, though.

"The…monkey…that…was…caught…was…found…to…be…infected up its-"

"The disease that was caught by several priests resulted in a great concern," Sukune corrected him. "Where did you even get monkey from?"

"Oh, shut up, you high and mighty idiot. I'm the god, you're the Shinki."

Sukune harrumphed. "I can't believe a god would barely know how to read."

"Lots of people don't know how to read! Like uh…farmers, and um…garbage collectors, and um…untouchables…you got a problem with that?"

"Congratulations! Now you fit in with them even more."

Yato was preparing a sarcastic remark when he was interrupted by the door to the shrine room basically flying off its hinges.

A girl burst in, completely out of breath. The green cloth that she was wearing was torn and faded beyond all recognition…was it even green to begin with? She wore no shoes, and her legs were scratched and cut. Her hair was long, black, and nondescript. The only thing that stood out about her were her eyes; they were a shade of purple. Yato had never seen that color on anyone until today.

Didn't make up for the brat disturbing his peace and quiet, though.

"She can't see us. Just wait until she goes away," he said in a low tone of voice to Sukune.

His Shinki huffed. "Why are you so bothered about it, then?"

"Because kids are annoying!"

"Excuse me, mister, can you help me?"

Both god and vessel froze, staring straight at the girl who had seemingly talked straight to them.

"Did she just say that to us?" Yato hissed.

"I don't know, you tell me!" Sukune spit back.

"You're the smart one!" Yato replied, still whispering.

"It's not my fault you're stupid!" came the whispered reply.

"Um, excuse me, mister, are you okay? You're talking to your sword…"

Yato could only stare at her like a criminal caught red-handed. Beside him, Sukune had quite possibly the smuggest smile he would ever smile on his face.

Regaining his composure, Yato decided the course to draw the least trouble was just to act like a human. The girl probably thought he was one anyway.

"Listen, kid. What do you want?"

"I'm looking for my brother. I've been taken far away from him and I don't know if he's okay. The kind people whose houses I worked at for my food told me that the monks at Uji would be able to help me. Are you a monk? You sure don't look like one."

"Well gee, that should probably answer your question for you, shouldn't it?" Yato fumed. "Do you _think_ someone with a sword who's squatting in the granary is a monk?"

"Are you a samurai then? What's a samurai doing here, and one that's so dirty? Are you a ronin?"

The irony of someone who was caked with mud from head to foot calling him dirty was not lost on Yato. "Yeah, I guess so."

"That's even better than a monk! Can you help me?"

"Why would I help you?"

"Because don't samurai always help someone when they need it?"

"I don't care about that. Shoo."

"She can't hear me, so I'm just gonna say this out loud," Sukune interjected. "This gets funnier by the second."

Yato hissed out but didn't say anything, because he sure didn't want the girl running off to tell the monks that there was an insane samurai who talked to his sword hiding in their storehouse. Maybe then they'd all see him too and kick him out.

"Aw, come on! Why won't you help me?"

"Kid, I already told you. Why should I take time out to help you?"

The girl drew a breath, and with a surprisingly authoritative shout, said, "Because I am Princess Aki, daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa and Taira no Shigeko! And the brother I seek is His Majesty the Emperor!"

Yato looked at her for a second, dumbfounded. Then slowly he began to snicker, then chuckle, then break out into a laugh which grew and grew before he was rolling on the floor in mirth. He gasped out in between laughter, "This kid…thinks…she's…a princess?"

The girl did not appear to be happy at all, but Yato didn't particularly care.

"I've seen farmers fall off buildings or get kicked in the head by a horse and forget who they are, but this is a first!" The laughter continued as he wiped tears off his face. "You know what you can do to get yourself back to normal? Run headfirst into a tree!"

All of a sudden, the laughter stopped, and he stood up and grabbed her hands, brushing them. Once they had been smooth, but now calluses were on every finger and palm pad. "Quite royal hands. You can tell this one has not labored in her life." Then he bowed. "An honor to meet you, Your Highness. I'm…Yamato Takeru…" He couldn't even finish the sentence without bursting into laughter again.

No sooner did he start laughing again than a carrot hit him right in the middle of the forehead.

The girl was shooting daggers toward him, and had already picked up a daikon to throw at him as well. She looked like she was going to throw every last vegetable in the storehouse, and probably all the rice, too.

"When a lady travels for three whole months just to ask you for help, you're supposed to help her, not laugh at her!" She flung the daikon. This time, Yato dodged. "You disgrace! I can see why you have no master!" This time an apple was heading right for Yato's head, but he caught it.

Angrily, Yato rubbed the spot that the first flying vegetable had left. It was going to swell up. Still fuming, he got to his feet and walked over to the girl, bending his head down so he could stare at her eyes with a fiery, intimidating blue gaze.

"Listen, Grand High Court Lady Bakako of the Idiot clan. I don't work for free. So someone coming in here and just ordering me to help them out…that won't work. What's in it for me other than a peasant girl acting like a little spoiled rich kid all the time?"

To his surprise, she didn't say anything indignant back, but bowed her head and nodded in a downcast way. "I guess you're right. I knew no one would believe me…I guess in these clothes I look like any peasant's daughter. I don't have anything to prove it, but I just want to find my brother…please…I don't know what's happened to him and he's probably worried sick about me too…so just please…I'll get down on my knees and beg you if I have to…I'll do anything. Just please help me…"

She kneeled down and pulled something out that she was keeping in the bag she had slung over her shoulder. "These are all I have…so please…I know they're not much…"

What she was holding in her hand was a small coin. Yato furrowed his brow. That was it? That was all she could provide? Why hadn't she got the memo yet that he wanted to be left alone?

And besides, what good was five yen? It couldn't get you anything out here, that's for sure. Come to think of it, where did she get the capital money from? Yato wondered. Was she possibly telling the truth? No, she was filthy. There was absolutely no way.

As he moved to take a closer look, he noticed pink underneath the coin. He hesitantly took the coin up from her hand, and as he did it, what was below revealed itself in all its glory.

A cherry petal.

 _Sakura._

She was in his head, so many images of her. Her smile, her laugh…it was as if she was right in front of him, knelt down.

 _You're a good person, Yato. I know it._

There was no farm girl anymore. It was the one he loved.

Then he blinked, and everything went away, and the girl who had declared herself to be a princess was in front of him again.

"Please? Will you help me?" She looked up at him, begging with a look of almost absolute hopelessness.

He put the coin away. "Okay, fine. You win. I'll go search for this brother of yours with you. But it's not like you convinced me to do it." He paused, scratching his neck. "I just…owe someone a favor, that's all."

"Are we going now?" the girl asked, shocked that she had finally gotten her way.

"Of course not. You're staying here tonight. Before you go anywhere you've gotta wash off all that dirt. Oh, and get some decent clothes. I can't go into cities with someone wearing rags. And before doing something like this I'm getting a good night's sleep and don't you dare wake me up." He laid down on the floor in his preferred sleeping position. "Go find yourself a nice dry spot. I wouldn't recommend the corners though. The spiders like those and sometimes in the night they fall off the ceiling. See you in the morning."

"Wait, Mr. Ronin…before you go to sleep I wanted to ask you something. I told you my name, so what's yours? It would be weird if you called me Aki and I called you mister all the time…"

The god turned his head up toward her. "It's Yato. Ya for night, to for divination."

"That's a pretty name." She cocked her head in thought. "Are you sure the second character's read 'to' though?"

"Absolutely positive. Good night."

He was asleep before she could say another word.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

This was a story that I got the sudden inspiration for and have been wanting to write for a long time. I love history and historical fiction is probably one of my favorite genres. It seems, however, that there are just not a lot, if any at all, historical anime or manga anymore. So I decided to write one of my own, and what better series to use than the one that actually deals with the ancient mythology of Japan? We know Yato's been alive for a very long time. He is immortal, after all. But in between his backstory and his present-day adventures, there is a giant gap. What did he do? Who did he meet? How did he change? I hope my idea of what happened can show you.

First, a little background on the events mentioned in the story. Obviously, some characters are not real, and some events don't take place exactly as they happened in real life, because the truth is real life often isn't entertaining or suspenseful enough. Still, many of the people I write about were actual historical figures of Japanese history. To help those that haven't heard about any of these people or events before follow along, here's a quick little summary:

The Minamoto, also known as the Genji, and the Taira, also known as the Heike, clans were two powerful noble families in feudal Japan and political rivals. Once they were only two of four families of equal status including the Fujiwara (Tougen) and Tachibana (Kitsu) clans. These were the most powerful of the _kuge_ , or nobility, which later on would be known as the samurai or _daimyo_ class. However, by the time the story is set, the Fujiwara and the Tachibana have declined in power, leaving only the two rivals atop the pyramid. And of course, both want control over the throne.

In 1156, the ascension of Emperor Go-Shirakawa (Aki's father) to the throne marked the beginning of the end of the Heian period and the rise of the shogunate. Although he was the rightful heir, some nobles, including the powerful Fujiwara clan who had served as regents, did not accept him as legitimate and demanded that Emperor Sutoku, who had abdicated, be restored. Many nobles from all families took both sides, but in the end it was the commanders of Minamoto no Yoshitomo and Taira no Kiyomori who achieved the victory for the reigning emperor. This victory crushed the Fujiwara for good as well as establish the two as the most powerful men in Japan. However, they would not stay allies for long. Kiyomori, a shrewd manipulator, managed to convince Go-Shirakawa to abdicate in favor of his son Nijo who was firmly under the control of the Taira. Yoshitomo saw this as a blatant abuse of power and moved to coup Nijo and place his abdicated father back on the throne. It did not end well for the leader of the Minamoto. The Taira forces smashed his, and Kiyomori beheaded Yoshitomo and his two eldest sons, then sent the youngest three into exile. Now nothing could stop him from taking over the throne. Placing Emperor Takakura (Aki's brother) on the throne as a figurehead, Kiyomori expected to be the puppetmaster. However, even the young king proved not to be to his liking, so Kiyomori decided that he should just sit the throne himself. To do that, he would need a regency, and Kiyomori had one waiting in the form of Takakura's three-year-old son. Now the Taira were in direct control of the country.

Except for one problem: Prince Mochihito, Takakura's brother, feared that Kiyomori had become a tyrant mad with power. To stop him, he called upon the three sons of his old enemy, the Minamoto, to help him restore order and to get revenge for their father. The Genpei War, the first, bloodiest civil war Japan had ever witnessed, was on the horizon.

I hope you like the idea and don't mind the history lesson and the length of the work. I'm working on a lot of projects right now, so updates might be slow, but I'll put my best into this!

-mrcmc888


	2. I) A Break of Ties

_Mii-dera (Temple of the Three Wells), Ōtsu in Ōmi province_

Lake Biwa was beautiful in the autumn, so it was written in the Man'yoshū. Perhaps the real sight on this cloudy day was not quite as impressive as the flowery terms the shut-in court poets used to describe it three hundred years ago, but with the leaves all around it turning shades of red, it did have a certain majesty to it, the young man in white thought as he drew his brush, dipped in ink along the canvas, swirling it, starting and stopping, as a character formed. It was "love". He didn't quite know why he had chosen it, only that it had been the first thing to come to mind.

Being shut in the temple for almost a year was quite taxing on the mind, but not so much as the recent events that the messengers from the capital had brought news of. When he had first heard them, he did not give grief or become enraged; he simply nodded. He was forced into seclusion here because he had earned the enmity of the Chancellor of the Realm, for daring to question his grasp of power and descent into tyranny. His older half-brother did not, and now he was dead, and no one was left to stop the mad Heike's control of the entire country

Now, he was not safe anymore. It would not be long before the imperial troops came marching into Mii-dera, caring not that it was a sacred place, to drag him back into the capital and die a commoner's death in front of all the nobles of Heian. In this age, being born into the imperial family was more of a curse than a blessing, thought the Prince. He sought to avoid it, and he wished to be a nameless monk living a life of solitude among the mountains. Yet just by existing he drew the wrath of Taira no Kiyomori, and by daring to speak what others could not, he drew his eternal hatred.

An old man, dressed in blue decorated with the white bamboo-leaves of his family, entered the hall where the Prince sat, shuffling along. His age was so advanced he could hardly walk anymore; he grimaced when each leg moved forward. Still, his age had not stripped him of his wit. The elder was still one of the most dangerous minds in all of the Eight Islands, and had served as a general under the same number of emperors, winning many battles in the north and east, and overthrowing the Emperor in the Hougen Rebellion before aiding the Taira in the Heiji Rebellion. Minamoto no Yorimasa, even at seventy-nine, was a name that chilled the heart of any man tasked with opposing him.

"Your Majesty," Yorimasa announced, dropping to a knee with an audible creak, "the sons of my brother Yoshitomo have arrived."

"Do not use that title," the Prince gently rebuked him, "for I am no Emperor."

"Neither is the Chancellor, but he thinks himself to be."

"Then I am not the same as him. Tell the monks to welcome my honored guests, and to bring their horses to the stables and provide them with food."

Within a few minutes, the screen doors to the Prince's chamber opened, giving a view into the temple beyond. Weapons lined the walls, and the monks, though of shaved head and in tunic, were muscular as any soldier; these were famed throughout the land for their skill in battle, but inside the temple they were forbidden to carry any bow or blade, for it was a sacred place. The monk who opened the door bowed to their guests: three men in full dress with the same golden eyes, almost like cats, that signified a Minamoto. It was widely written that their father had the same eyes as them, and that only the Minamoto, out of all the nobles, bore that eye color.

The tallest and oldest had hair of orange and a squared jaw, the second was brown-haired, small, and looked like he could barely keep his eyes open, and the third, though young, had long hair the color of violets; each of them bowed in turn, then sat before the Prince. Behind him, Yorimasa took the same seat.

The first of the Minamoto brothers began. "Greetings to you," he said in a loud, authoritative voice, "o great Prince Mochihito, and to you, honorable Uncle."

"It is the same to you," he addressed them in turn, "Yoritomo, Noriyori, and Yoshitsune. I suppose I was small the last time I saw you last. My, how things change."

"It's unfortunate," Yoritomo replied. "I have heard the news. I did not wish for them to be this way, but it is out of my control. My brothers and I are fortunate that Kiyomori did not bother to pursue us, or we would not be here talking to you."

The Prince bowed his head and sighed deeply. "I wished not to believe it. I wished that even when he betrayed Yoshitomo that somewhere deep in the heart of the Grand Chancellor was a small speck of light, but I can say so no longer. I fear the country is ruined if something is not done."

He paused. It was starting to become humid: it was like he could smell rain on the wind. "I apologize. I know you three do not wish to hear this from one whose mother was a Taira himself. But, there is no other option. The Grand Chancellor is mad. I do not wish to call you to war…but there is nothing else I can do."

Yoritomo bowed low, followed by the youngest, although Noriyori took a second to do so until his older brother prodded him. "We are greatly saddened by the loss, Your Majesty."

The Prince bowed his head, too, sighing a little. "My brother was a kind soul…maybe too kind. We were never meant to rule, not when a wolf such as Kiyomori is alive. It was just the misfortune of our generation. I could never hope to match him, and he could less so. It's just that…I knew I should have stayed by him, but I ran away here, and now he is dead, indignantly slain in a 'fire'. If only…It is too late for that, I suppose. I ask your help."

"Our help we gratefully provide," Yoritomo said piercingly. "The Grand Chancellor did something unforgivable twenty years ago at the end of the Rebellion of Heiji, when he executed my father, the same man he fought beside no more than two years earlier. The Genji remember, and we will pay him back in kind. And now, he has committed a sin so heinous toward even the heavens itself…to slay the very divine Emperor…he is no man, he is a demon, and our role is to save the country from him. We will mass the armies to remove the tyrant Heike from the throne Heaven has not prescribed to them, but that they have taken by force. They spit in the face of the gods above, and of men below. And to that end, o Prince, I proclaim you the Emperor of Yamato and all the Nine Islands here beyond. Hail, Heavenly Sovereign, Ruler over all the Land in which the Sun Rises, Amaterasu in the flesh!"

And he bent low. After a second, Yoshitsune followed his genuflection, but the second son was fast asleep on the table. An angery Yoritomo noticed him and slapped the back of his head hard, abruptly rousing Noriyori from his sleep, before pushing his head down.

"Raise your heads, noble sons of Yoshitomo," the Prince said. "I wish to be no emperor."

The three hesitantly raised up, with Noriyori still rubbing the welt his older brother had given him.

At that time, a young priest hurriedly burst through the door. His robe was covered in sweat, and he was gasping, his hands on his knees. His bald, tanned head glistened with perspiration.

"S-sir…I come bearing news from the capital…the Grand Chancellor has called forth the armies to arrest you and they set to march on your location as I speak…please, escape from here while you can…the Heike will surely have you all…leave…"

The Minamoto sons stood, their faces growing pale. "No one knew of our arrival here…on this instance, the only ones were the monks and ourselves…a traitor? No, that can't be…" Yoritomo muttered.

"Sir, should I tell the Head Priest to find the traitor?" the messenger piped up.

"There is no time," Yoritomo replied. "We will come north. Please come with us…you too, beloved Uncle…"

"And then I would bring the Heike to your door. No, I cannot do that. I cannot allow more than what is absolutely necessary to die, for then it would be pointless, and the tyrant would reign over all. You go before me. Lord Yorimasa, call your sons, your retainers, and all your men who stay here to arms. I gave away my royal duties, and I will live no longer as a coward."

"My lord, you cannot!"

"You were the one that proclaimed me your ruler, Yoritomo. I order this of you. You will flee, and leave your uncle and I, to conduct a plan. And when it is done, you will mass all of your men across this nation, all who love their freedom and the great gods above, and free the Nine Islands from Kiyomori's tyrant grasp. This is my last command as your emperor, o Genji. I know it comes soon, but were I to flee here, all would be lost. Promise me this, Genji, that you will emerge victorious."

"I swear it to you, my lord!"

"Remove that shake from your voice," the old man Yorimasa harrumphed. "You are no boy anymore."

"And what of you, Uncle?" the eldest Minamoto asked.

"I have five hundred of my guard with me; it is suitable to hold them off for a time. We will stay here, until Kiyomori's army is close, and then mass and break for the capital. He does not seek the head of the Prince with so much vigor as he seeks those of you three. I will make it seem as if you are with our number. Once he finds that he has been lied to, you will already be far away, in Kamakura, at the head of all your men, and marching to fight him. You there!" he said, addressing the young monk who had brought the news. "Will you aid our escape?"

"The Head Priest will stall the Heike for you, my lord," the novice replied. "It is our honor."

"Death's spectre is soon to take me. It is better for that to happen in an honorable way," the old man mused. "Young priest, if you please, inform the monk that we head toward Heian."

"Thank you, Uncle. May you be blessed." Yoritomo, still trying his best to look brave, turned and walked quickly toward the door to where their horses were.

"Aaah, looks like it's going to be a hassle…" Noriyori muttered.

The two older brothers had left, but the third still stood, staring the Prince in his eyes. For the first time, he was not able to read this person just from his expression. Good, bad…he saw nothing in the face of Minamoto no Yoshitsune.

"My lord and my family are my honor," he said, and then just as quickly he left.

And with that, the Prince and the old general were alone again. "My Prince, my army will march when the order is given."

"Bring me my bed," said Mochihito. "I am grown weary."

* * *

 _Somewhere in Ise_

"Do you even know where we're going?" the girl asked, her frustration beginning to show.

"Like I said, I know a guy in Echizen who would probably be able to help. It's gonna take us a couple months to get there, though." her companion replied.

"It'll take more than that if you keep going in circles!" Aki cried indignantly. "If you had just stayed on the main road we could have been all the way to the next town by now! But no, you just had to take a shortcut, didn't you?"

"Like I said, I know my way around here!" Yato shot back.

"Then why are we out wandering in the forest? Where even are we?"

"Shut up and keep walking."

This hat that samurai were supposed to wear, according to his charge, really itched, and the top of Yato's head was beginning to soak his hair in sweat. And the snicker in the back of his ear didn't make it any better. He made a mental note to hit his Shinki once they had made camp for the night.

 _I never thought the genius of a god could get any smarter,_ Sukune smirked.

 _Shut it. You're lucky I don't just throw you out in the forest._

 _Yeah, because that would make you safer, wouldn't it? The god of wisdom strikes again._

Yato hissed out. His weapon sure did have things he couldn't counter.

 _Why don't you just be thankful for this? I even put you in Vessel form, and you're still being rude…_

 _Stop being stupid and then I won't call you on it. Seriously, I can understand not being able to read letters, but a map? It's just a picture!_

 _You tell me where we are, then!_

 _Actually, I'm just a ronin's sword. I'm not supposed to be talking._ And with that, Sukune would say no more.

He did have a point, though. Yato vaguely knew the location of the god he was seeking, but just because he himself was a god didn't mean he had a good sense of direction, or that he could fly, or anything of that sort short of just walking to his destination like any peasant.

The girl wholeheartedly believed him to be just some samurai who she had found squatting in a temple, and Yato had no reason to tell her the truth. He knew someone-he knew exactly who, but he quickly pushed that thought out of his mind-was looking for him, and it sure would make it easy for them if he didn't keep his identity a secret. If he told her, or he did something that no human could do, who knows who would overhear, or see, and how quickly more would know, until it reached the Stray, or… _him_?

Getting clothes wasn't very hard, though. He felt a little bad that some samurai and lady in the town outside the shrine had woken up to find their clothes missing, but he had to do what he had to do. The robe he had picked up for himself was dark blue. It was common, but that just made him blend in more. The girl who walked beside him had on a red robe: it wasn't peasant attire, but it wasn't particularly indicative of a noble either. They could just be any local landlord's daughter and her guard travelling.

He was still not sure how the girl managed to see him, though. Apparently because she could see him, others could too, because a few people had looked at him when they were both on the main road. But did that mean that when he wasn't near her, like when he had gone to steal clothes, people didn't see him? No one in the brothel he took them from seemed to have any clue he was there, and before Aki showed up, no one at all save for other gods and the dead could see him. And why couldn't she see Sukune even when he was in human form? It didn't make sense.

The light shone down from in between the cloud cover, making a dapple pattern on the dirt and grass, a few green leaves here and there. There wasn't even another traveler on the road, as far as they could tell. It was the back way, but even so, it wasn't too far from the main road to the west coast, and yet there was no one on it. If not for his companions he walked aside, Yato would think himself the only man alive.

But he was no man.

Nature must feel much better as a human, he thought, because there was only so much time to live in it, and then it was done. They did not know who had created it; they did not worry about powers greater than them. They just saw it for what it was. It had ceased to be anything special for Yato; after all, there were forests just like it anywhere else in the world. He knew who made these forests, and the ground and the animals. It wasn't anything special to him, and yet to them, it was.

He listened, just out of curiosity. It was curiously quiet; even the birds were not singing. It was as if time, for just a short moment, had ceased to flow-

No. That's not what it was.

Instantly, the sound of footsteps, as loud as an elephant in the silence, broke toward the east.

"What's that-" Aki was cut off by a young man, wearing the black robes of a monk and white scarf around his head, but dirtied, his sash hanging off his shoulders, running for his life. His terrified eyes caught those of Yato's, flashing just for a brief second, but even with that time he could tell the boy was terrified.

Aki stood beside the god looking at the young man who had broken the silence, the maroon jewels of her eyes covered over by confusion, and then grass began to crackle all around them. Yato saw the black smoke before the six men, their weapons drawn, emerged. Aki's eyes widened and she took a step back.

 _It's a greed ayakashi. I knew it. Bandits are easy targets for them. But six men at once…it must be a powerful one._

The people who lived in such poverty that they were forced to rob travelers to live…their hearts were easy prey for ayakashi to feed on. And this one had possessed an entire gang.

In one move, the god drew his sword, holding it at the ready, the steel glinting in the sunlight, and pushed Aki behind him. "Don't let them get near you. Take the kid and stay back."

She just slightly nodded with wide eyes, edging back.

The bandit in the lead, directly across from Yato, who held a short sword, called out, "Get outta the way!"

"Who are you, and what do you want from me?" the god replied, not averting his gaze.

"We got no quarrel with you. Just move."

"Let me guess. You want him?" The young man in the monk robes was sitting on the ground, his jaw dropped, clutching a satchel tightly in his arms and edging backwards. Aki was trying to slowly move him away, but he could barely back up far.

"Just move!"

"Can't do that."

"Listen, buddy, I don't want to have to rob you too, but we will if you don't move out of the way…" All the bandits edged forward. The smoke of the ayakashi was beginning to move off their shoulders and back, as they begin to grin unnaturally as one.

"You were always gonna do that, weren't you?" Yato growled. He cocked his arms into a fighting stance. "Come, Kyuuki," he whispered.

"Ah damn. I guess you found us out," the bandit leader smirked. "Who are you anyways? Some kinda samurai?"

"Guess you could say that."

"Aren't you supposed to proclaim your name and master? You're a sorry excuse for a samurai. And who's the little girl beside you? Your kid?"

"I'm not under any obligation to tell you that."

"Well, too bad." And then he moved.

The leader of the bandits took to Yato, so fast he was almost surprised. The others were with him, matching him. It was as much as he could do to block.

 _The ayakashi is increasing their abilities. A normal human would be no match for me._

One of them slashed forward with his knife, barely catching Yato. He fell back, his guard still up.

His hand bled.

 _Are you sure you should have picked this fight?_ Sukune piped up.

 _Sukune, barrier, now._ _Like I taught you._

 _To do what?_

 _Split them apart._

 _Wouldn't that break the charade?_

 _She never saw you when you weren't in your weapon form the first time. Could work._

 _Whatever the great god says._

With a single move, Sukune flashed out of his sword form into his human form, drawing a line across his body. A ray of golden light moved on the ground, splitting between each of the bandits. They started to murmur in surprise, shielding their eyes. That was his opportunity. Yato slammed into the first bandit with the hilt of his sword before he could react. As the man lay on the ground, struggling to catch his breath, he raised the sword up.

It was an easy way to get rid of an ayakashi when they possessed someone. All you had to do was kill their host.

He lifted Kyuuki up…it would be finished soon. He had won.

As he swung it backwards, he looked, and saw the girl behind him was staring in an expression of terror, her wine-red eyes beginning to glisten over.

Kyuuki hung limply at his side, mere inches from the bandit's neck.

Nobody had prayed to him that this man should die. It wouldn't be right for him to make his own wish, would it?

It was then that he saw her face…Sakura, and she smiled at him.

 _Can you do something for me?_ he asked his Shinki.

 _What would that be?_

 _Purification_.

Sukune flashed out of his weapon form again, the silver-haired youth standing beside his master.

"Make a barrier around him," Yato commanded. "I'll clear the ayakashi out."

Moving his hand in the shape of a box, the Shinki hemmed in the man with golden light, and Yato began to chant, in a tone of voice so songlike as to be almost incomprehensible to speech. Perhaps it was the tongue of the gods, or perhaps it was the tongue of man.

The bandit's body began to smoke and heave violently, and above him the black cloud of the ayakashi began to form into a shape. The other bandits' bodies were being wracked, as well, as the horrid black smoke began to wrap violently around them.

"It's draining them…" Sukune muttered, looking up. The ayakashi being forcibly removed from one of its human hosts meant it was going to consume the energy of the others and leave them…to attack.

A clawed arm began to form from the shape in the air, and an unblinking eye opened.

"Smells good."

One blow would end it.

"Come forth, Kyuuki!" Yato barked, and as the sword materialized in his hand launched himself in the air, cleaving through the monster before it even had time to attack. A shimmering crystal formed in the air, then burst apart in a rush of light and wind as the god landed on the ground. It was over.

As the barrier lines disappeared from around him, the bandits were slowly and groggily getting up. Their leader caught Yato's eye and immediately prostrated himself. "S-Sir, spare me, please!"

"You're not armed," the god harrumphed. "Do you think I'll kill someone who's already been defeated?"

"J-just spare us, please! We'll never do it again!"

 _It really isn't their fault in the first part_ , Yato thought. _Damn ayakashi. They'd all probably be just out in the fields right now if that monster hadn't possessed them._

"Listen, I don't know anything about your situation," Yato replied, sheathing Kyuuki. "So I'm not gonna act like I can tell you what's right and wrong. Just let me warn you…the next guy you try to pull this on may not be willing to see it your way. I'd just stay out of trouble if I was you."

"T-thank you, sir!" the bandit chief exclaimed, and motioning to his men they all ran away about as fast as Yato had seen a human run in some time.

 _Look at you, trying to act all moral all of a sudden,_ Sukune gloated.

 _What's wrong with that?_

 _You would have happily cut them apart if someone had given you a coin for it. You're about as noble as a pig._

The way Sukune mouthed off to his master, Yato was surprised he hadn't been stung yet. It seemed like it was going to happen one of these days.

Aki was still staring straight ahead, although as Yato approached her, she blinked, appearing to rouse herself from her trance. The monk was still seated on the ground, absolutely terrified.

"Hey, you," he snapped, motioning his hand across the face of the terrified boy. "Somebody in there?"

The boy in the monk robes instantly made a noise halfway between terror and surprise. "A-are they gone?"

Yato scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, they're not gonna bother you anymore."

"Who are you?"

"Just someone who has to protect an annoying little girl."

Aki, in the background, puffed her cheeks out.

"Y-you can make light come out of your hands and things like that?"

"Huh? Don't be stupid."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" the young man cried, bowing down. "Please don't rob me!"

 _Seems like he knows you well_ , Sukune smirked.

 _Like I'd do that._

"Get up. And close your mouth, you look like a fish after it's been caught," Yato harrumphed. The boy scrambled to his feet.

"M-my name's Chiku…I'm a new monk at Kiyomizu-dera in the capital. I was on a journey to the Wakasahiko Shrine with my sect when we were attacked by those raiders and I got separated…thank you for saving me. They were going to take this-" he held out the small sack he carried- "it's all I have."

"You think this had anything to do with you?" Yato replied. "It was only because they got in my way."

Aki shot daggers at her charge.

"Sir, I don't mean to be rude to you, but is it possible you can help me find my sect in Wakasa?"

"No way. I've already got one annoying kid to haul around."

"B-but, sir, I'll do anything…"

"Then I'll tell you what you can do: leave and not bother me."

It was at that time a large, heavy object landed squarely on Yato's shoulders, wrestling him down to the ground and an arm wrapped around his throat. "You STUPID EXCUSE FOR A SAMURAI!"

Yato tried to yell out that he was being choked, but Aki's rage hold meant he couldn't get a word out edgewise. "He's begging for help and you just IGNORE HIM? You scum! You coward!"

"L-let him go! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" the young monk wailed.

"Is this okay?" Chiku asked, holding out a coin, as Aki sulked in the background, nursing the bump on the head she had just been given.

 _Capital money again._

"Well, Wakasa is on the way to where we're going, so I guess we could do that. But I'm not helping you out specifically. It's just…a promise, I guess."

"Thank you, sir! Oh, thank you!" the monk exclaimed, falling at his feet.

"Get up," Yato harrumphed. "That's embarrassing, groveling like that."

"Right! Sorry!"

 _He's going to be a handful. Great. Just great. Now I have two kids and an annoying Shinki._

"Well, Wakasa is this way, so let's get going," Yato announced, yanking his hand in the ahead direction."

"Yes, sir!" Chiku cried, immediately running as so not to lag behind. Aki followed behind him somewhat more slowly, still sulking.

After they had continued a few more minutes down the peaceful forest road again, the girl came up beside him.

"You're horrible…" she muttered. "A samurai doesn't hit his lady like that…"

"A lady doesn't choke out her samurai like that," Yato shot back.

Aki rubbed the bump on the back of her head, pouting. "You were being rude to him, though…"

"Why is it never your fault?" the god muttered. "Anyways, why are you clinging up here all of the sudden? Got another stupid thing for me to do?"

"No, well, when you were fighting those guys, I saw all these strange lights going across the ground, and your sword disappeared and reappeared, and you…flew…is there something you're not telling me?"

"You're hallucinating."

"No, I'm not!" Aki replied, indignantly. "I saw it!"

"Yeah, and what samurai does that? You've just got an overactive imagination."

"Hmpf! You're a super liar! I saw it happen!"

"Whatever you say, Princess Idiot."

And as they continued to bicker as they walked down the road, the young monk following close behind, Yato was at least grateful his weapon wasn't causing trouble for now.

* * *

 _Uji, Yamashiro_

The wind blew in a stiff breeze off the wide, flowing river. It was particularly cooling in the summer heat, where the water in the air hung muggily all around the Kinai. Today, the clouds blanketed the sky, and it seemed as if everything, from the trees to the grass and the water itself, had taken on a shade of gray. It was fitting, thought the man upon the horse, the leftmost of the three that stood on the banks of the river as they stood, looking out upon a grand temple, and the hundreds of men, both warrior-monk and samurai, bearing Minamoto banners, across from them. Behind the samurai on horses stood thousands of soldiers, the Taira crest flags flapping violently in the wind.

The Taira that the three men stood at the head of outnumbered their enemies nearly four times to one. The Grand Chancellor, the man's father, had sent them out upon finding that three sons of Minamoto no Yoshitomo had met with the Imperial Prince at Mii-dera, and they had marched there only to find that the men had fled south, and they had pursued the Genji for months. But now, it was at an end. The Taira controlled the capital and all south from it, so they were cornered. They could go no more.

The man in the center was a tall, handsome, ruddy youth, who had piercing eyes and a strong body, who was surveying the army in front of him. He turned to the man on the horse beside him, saying: "Lord Tomomori, have you caught sight of the Genji princes?"

The man sighed. "I have not, Lord Tadatsuna. They must be inside the great hall."

Many years of being born into the family of Taira no Kiyomori had taken its toll on his thirdborn son. Tomomori had always considered himself unlike his brothers. While his father was always extolling the virtues of battle, and Shige-nii and Mune-nii would always dream of fighting battles, he took his swordsmanship lessons only because he was forced to, and no more than that. There was nothing he wanted more than a peaceful life, to have a family and retire to a far reach of the empire, living among nature.

Yet, with Kiyomori as your father, that wasn't really possible. That was why, despite all of his protests, most of his twenty-eight years had been spent commanding armies, and even when he willingly did that his father would still look down on him. He wasn't like his two older brothers; they were skilled and brave and loved combat. Tomomori wondered if his father wished he had birthed eight Shigemoris instead of one.

The man to the right of Ashikaga no Tadatsuna, the young general who commanded this army, was Tomomori's younger brother Shigehira, who was completely like him. He always wanted to be like Shige-nii, and this was his first chance to get to be in the lead of an army. He was trying hard to hide his excitement, but his older brother could see his eyes sparkling and his mouth trying to smile as he looked out upon the large contingent of Minamoto who were to be their opponent.

Tomomori wondered if he would be so excited after this one was over. His brother hadn't quite realized what battle could be like.

As they watched, the doors to the temple opened, and an old man, accompanied by two younger ones, walked out. Tomomori recognized him on sight; what noble worth half his salt wouldn't? Minamoto no Yorimasa was the greatest general in all the Nine Islands still living, and he was one of the ones his father wanted his sons to be like. Tomomori surely thought one day he would serve under him, but now, he was their enemy.

"The Scourge of the North…I was afraid the Genji would have recruited him…" Tadatsuna muttered, running his hand through his short, reddish-brown hair.

"I say he made that decision himself," Tomomori replied. "The old man can't leave the thrill of battle behind."

Yorimasa, hobbling, his old bones wracked with pain but still walking with a fierce determination, made his way to the riverbed, staring down the three Taira commanders with those cat-like yellow Genji eyes.

"Noble Uncle," Tadatsuna announced, his voice booming across the river, "you can go no further. Surrender the Prince and the three sons of Yoshitomo."

"Tadatsuna," the old man replied with a shaky but firey voice, "why stand you at the head of the Heike, against your own family?"

"I made an oath to Lord Kiyomori, the same as you, Uncle," Tadatsuna replied. "You are the one I should be asking why you bed with traitors, standing against the Realm. Did you not make that same oath to the same lord as I? And yet here you rise against him."

"No Heike binds me, young Tadatsuna. Do you wish to fight me, Tadatsuna? Raise arms against your own bloodline?"

"With all honor afforded to you, great uncle, I made no same oath toward the Minamoto house as I did toward the Grand Chancellor."

"So you stand with that tyrant's sons and army, and you will fight me?"

"No, Uncle, I do not wish to fight you, only for you to turn over the Prince and the Minamoto sons to me."

The old man grinned. "I'm afraid you will have to. The sons of Yoshitomo are already at their castle at Kamakura raising their forces, not with us. It is remarkable how easily youth can be deceived."

Tadatsuna gritted his teeth. The Grand Chancellor would be furious that he had sent such a large army after his enemies, and they had escaped. Tomomori had expected something like this, but…he had no way of figuring out what it might be. The old man was just too devious.

The young Ashikaga drew his sword. "Surrender now, and the Grand Chancellor might spare you!"

"Grovel before that bastard? I'd sooner die, instead of shaming my family like you have, boy."

There was no choice, Tomomori realized. The old man was goading them to fight no matter what, and the young noble was going to be goaded into it. He'd been played like a court lady plays a shamisen.

"No man of the house of Minamoto would ever put any loyalty above that to their own kind. So let me ask you, boy, has your manhood perhaps taken a leave of absence? Did the Taira, perhaps, make you a eunuch? For a man would not be such a coward to raise even a finger against his family!"

"Do you question my honor, Uncle?" Tadatsuna roared. "If you would rather die than bow to the Emperor and the Grand Chancellor, then that is what you will do! I am Ashikaga no Tadatsuna, of the line of Seiwa Genji, and I shall take your head, traitor! Men, charge!"

Tomomori had wished to avoid a battle, but as the horses and soldiers charged behind him, he realized that wouldn't be possible anymore.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

Hello again! I know updates have been slow, but it's final season, and I've finally gotten a big enough break from them to write a little bit. I hope you enjoy this chapter, even if it is a little slow…I saw a positive reaction after just one chapter of this story, so I finally figured out what to do to continue it.

For all those asking about the warrior monks and what they did, in the Heian period Buddhist monks were expected to be warriors, not ascetics. Just like the Shaolin of China, which I'm sure some of you have heard of, they were trained not only in hand-to-hand combat, but also with weapons. While it's curious why followers of a religion that proclaimed nonviolence would wield weapons in battle, it's a part of Japanese history nonetheless, and in the time I write of, temples were powerful enough to pretty much be equal to lords, as they owned lands and could field armies. The support of Buddhist temples with warrior monks was important for any noble who sought to expand his power. Chiku is a member of a sect that trains in weaponry but only for defense, not for war.

The battle I describe is the First Battle of Uji (today an outer area of Kyoto), which was the opening conflict of the Genpei War. Although it did not occur exactly because of the reasons I described (the Minamotos were already at their castle in Kamakura, central Kanto at the time), the commanders and locations that I write about were true in actuality and not embellished. The problem with inventing personalities for these real historical people is there is not a lot of writing on what they actually were like in thought or feeling, and a bunch of samurai who act the same just aren't memorable. So while they may not look and act like they really did, it's kind of necessary to build a good character to have them be unique.

Well, considering I'm off to college this summer, I may not have a lot of free time, but I will try my hardest to continue pumping out chapters of all my works. Thanks for reading! Please leave a review if you can, it really helps. See you soon!

-mrcmc888


	3. I) Separation

_Yamashiro Province_

The sparks from the flames that were consuming the only bridge leading into the grounds of the Byodo temple shot high into the morning air, illuminating the slight puffs of fog that crept across the ground. In front of the temple, on the small island on which it stood, white banners packed together as archers and foot-soldiers clustered; the entire Minamoto force, even though it was dwarfed by the Taira, bristled with enough points to put a herd of porcupines to shame.

Tomomori cursed under his breath. It was a disadvantaged position to begin with. Either they were forced across the bridge and mowed down, or they were forced into the water and mowed down. It looked like there was no longer any choice but the second. That old man sure knew how to defend a position.

The Taira's red flags flapped in the wind behind the three nobles leading their force, and the archers drew their bows. Horses paced, snorting. They knew what was coming just as well as Tomomori did.

The fourth son of the Taira clenched his sword hilt, readying. It would be any second now.

With a final flourish of smoke and sparks, the remaining half of the bridge snapped loudly and careened into the river.

The tall young man at the head of the army drew his blade, pushing it forward and making it glint against the sunlight.

"My name is Ashikaga no Tadatsuna, and in the name of my lord Taira no Ason Kiyomori, Grand Chancellor of the Realm to whom I have pledged my undying fealty, and in that of the Emperor, Amaterasu in the flesh, I will destroy you! Men, charge!"

What seemed like a thousand horses began to break into a full run, their hooves pounding on the packed dirt, and with them, a thousand warriors' cries. The surcoats they wore over their armor caught the wind and ballooned out, making family crests wave like flags. Soon, the colorful plates decorating their bodies, the elaborate horned helmets and metal masks the samurai wore, maybe resembling a demon or a tengu or a warrior spirit, would become painted with the colors of the battlefield: dirt, grass, gore, and many unspeakable things. Tomomori had seen far too many young nobles ride into battle proudly, with the most elaborate armor and weapons money could buy, those that had been given a god's protection from some shrine or other so that no harm could come to the wearer, and had seen them come back from battle a pale corpse, their throats slit, their bodies opened, or perhaps missing their heads altogether, a cloth thrown over the cadaver's face to vainly disguise what all their comrades already knew. With the young Ashikaga at their lead, the knights on horseback pounded into the water, kicking up spray. A black rain of arrows loosed from the defending forces on the island, and those on the mainland returned fire.

The screams of horses and of men filled the air, as bodies splashed as deadweight into the water. The Minamoto were not budging, as they simply stood packed, swords out, cutting down the samurai who attempted to dive into their ranks.

It was not a battle they could keep going this way. Sooner or later, they would be overwhelmed. But they were losing far more men than they could afford to. It would be far better to circle around and rush from all sides.

The young warrior who was the commander, however, did not think that way. He was unhorsed, in the water up to neck height, holding his cloak up to his neck to block the arrows being fired at him from all directions.

 _That blasted fool,_ thought Tomomori. _He's more concerned with his honor than his life._

There was a footsoldier breaking from the shore, ready to charge. The commander was pinned down. He could not devote a free hand to his weapon.

In a single fluid motion, Tomomori drew his bow from his back, drew, and cocked it. _Five sen, wind to my back. Aim high._

The arrow that loosed flew true into the eye of the attacker, who fell instantly. But more were beginning to break from the pack defending the island. Surely they had recognized the commander, and the fact that he was alone.

Tomomori fired another arrow. _Direct hit, four and a half sen. Heart._

They were coming faster than he could fire, though; at this rate, he couldn't hold him off forever. As he cocked another arrow, he heard a voice beside him.

"Big Brother, Lord Ashikaga is out there fighting all by himself...I don't know what I should do...I know we ought to rescue him, but I can't do it all by myself...please, if we let him die, I don't know how angry Father will be."

 _Why are you asking me that? Do you think I'm any more confident about it?_

Unlike his younger siblings, he did not care what his father thought of him at all. But he knew, if he did not act like a hero at least for that moment, and he let a man who trusted him as a lieutenant die without raising a finger to help, it would haunt him for the rest of his life.

 _Curse you, you damn old man. Curse you for goading us into a battle that did not need to happen, and curse you and your entire family for making yourselves martyrs even though you are rebelling against your own Emperor, Yorimasa, you backstabbing old snake._

"Men, charge!" Tomomori yelled, turning to the remainder of the army still behind them. "Our goal is to protect Lord Ashikaga! Let no Genji even touch him!"

The roar of approval that filled the samurai behind him told him that he had made the right decision. As one, they began to spur their horses onwards toward the river. As the remainder of the Taira forces collapsed, the Minamoto, in defense, began to charge into the water in return.

The two wild beasts finally met. The sound of metal making contact with itself, cutting deep into flesh with sickening crunches, filled the air. The smell of death filled the air. Blood was pounding in Tomomori's ears so hard he could hardly hear. The crimson cloak of the Commander was ahead. If he could only reach him...

Something strong suddenly grasped him and yanked him off his mount, and instantly he was in the water. The liquid filled his nose and mouth as he gasped for breath. He tried to struggle to the surface, but something was holding him down, no matter how hard he thrashed.

Then, suddenly it was gone, and he instantly stood up, gasping for air. His younger brother was in front of him, breathing heavily, water (or was it sweat?) slicking his hair and covering his face. His blade was wet, and as he looked down, Tomomori noticed the limp body of a Minamoto soldier lying face-down in the water, dark tendrils spreading out from it all around. The entire river was beginning to darken.

Shigehira's mouth was still wide, and he was struggling to hold his breath in. That would have been his first kill, Tomomori thought. It had happened to him once, too. All boys started as bright-eyed and wondrous, having heard of the great deeds of war heroes and wishing to be exactly as them...and then they took their first life, and they broke.

The commander was in front of him, the Taira warriors boxing him in. He slowly struggled to his feet. The water was waist-height here, and Tadatsuna could stand again. He moved slowly and weakly, however.

"My lord, please retreat!" Tomomori yelled.

Something out of the corner of his eye twitched. Somebody in the water? No, the Genji were all trapped on the island, and the only ones in the water were bodies. There could not be anyone still alive-

A glint of steel shot from the water. Tomomori could only turn around fast enough to see a wounded Minamoto soldier thrust his blade at the commander's throat. They all were completely off guard. Perhaps sapiently, or perhaps just out of instinct, Tadatsuna managed to get his sword up in enough time to block. The dagger fell from the hand of the wounded enemy as he fell to his rear in the water. He had a deep gash along his sword hand's shoulder; the muscle was most likely severed, and blood was openly spurting from it, and with it went the life that flowed through him. It was amazing he had even managed to move the shoulder at all. He would be dead soon, Tomomori knew. Nary a man had ever survived a wound of that degree; whenever it bled that way, they were good as finished.

Tadatsuna raised his blade, glinting in the sunlight. The enemy could not offer any resistance. Now, he would be finished. It would be the valiant thing to do, to let him die a brave warrior...

And then the young Ashikaga dropped his sword in the water and fell to his knees.

"What are you doing, Lord Ashikaga?" Shigehira yelled, barely audible over the din of war. "Kill him!"

The commander said nothing, only stared straight ahead with a vacant look. He had gone completely pale, even more lifeless than a corpse, it seemed. If he couldn't do it...Tomomori gritted his teeth and drew his sword. He didn't like killing any more than anyone else did, but this man would surely die anyways...

An arrow flew through the air, piercing the forehead of the Minamoto soldier, who fell limp into the water. Tomomori relaxed, even as arrows flew all around him and lines of knights in front of him crashed into each other on the island's shore. He wouldn't have to take another life after all.

He heard the second arrow whistle through the air before he saw it pierce into Ashikaga no Tadatsuna's back. His commander stiffened before coughing up blood, stumbling forward. As he struggled, another arrow flew and embedded itself in his neck, and the young Ashikaga fell alongside the Minamoto soldier, dead.

Tomomori and his brother whipped around, now at the ready. Was there a flank coming in? They couldn't have lost to the old devil here, not now that their forces were making it onto the island and toward the temple, where the Minamoto's pretender and the general were sequestered...

But the banners that emerged over the hills behind the Taira forces were not white but red, and at their lead, a flaxen-haired man, smiling wryly ever so slightly, carried his bow and blade, dragging a limp body beside him. "A Genji has infiltrated our midst!" Munemori roared so loudly it seemed that all of the Kinai could hear, throwing the corpse in front of him. "He has disguised himself as one of our men and cowardly slain Lord Ashikaga from behind! We will not forgive them for this! Men, charge their lines!"

Thousands more samurai drew their blades and rushed into battle, their horses' hooves kicking up dirt and spray. The Minamoto on the island, still holding, fired arrow after arrow, and their knights moved to meet the reinforcements, but there were just too many fresh men. The white-bannered line stretched and stretched before breaking, and the knights in red poured onto the island. It was finished, and all the two Taira brothers could do was watch from afar as the island was taken.

As Tomomori and Shigehira stood in the water, still lapping at their knees, the hooves of a horse splashed behind them. Their older brother, his bright red surcoat unsullied, came to a halt beside them. Shigehira sighed contently. Once again, Mune-nii had come to save him.

Munemori looked down at the body of Ashikaga no Tadatsuna in the water with an expression; Tomomori couldn't quite tell if it was pity or contempt.

"So that's what happens when you don't take the lead, is it?" Munemori asked. "You two would be better to be more attentive. Perhaps you could have saved him." He dropped the body he carried into the water at his two younger brothers' feet. "Then again, he would not have survived one more battle. The weak tend to die in the field. You don't want to end up like him, do you?" He paused before spurring his horse, and Tomomori's older brother took off toward his own army.

Shigehira was down on one knee, breathing rapidly, now trying to fight off the adrenaline of battle. For the first time, Tomomori felt the river water seeping into his greaves. It was cold, oddly so for the Kansai summer. He climbed onto the shore of the river where, in the distance, he could see the last of the Minamoto forces fighting with all they could to protect the door to the main hall of the temple.

As he sat, the sun drying his wet armor, the body of the man who his brother had said traitorously killed Tadatsuna floated up, depositing on the shore beside him. The surcoat, red, as all Taira troops' and affiliated families wore, was stretched in the sun; wet, but the family crest on its back was still fully visible. A dragon over a peony flower...the man was a member of the Kiryu clan. Tomomori sat perplexed. They were not a Taira branch family, but they carried a long-standing hatred for the Minamoto: once a long time ago, a Kiryu had been murdered in a drunken quarrel with a Minamoto, but as the killer was a member of the Four Noble Houses and the victim was from a minor clan, no justice was ever meted out, even though there was more than enough evidence proving the Minamoto did it. It was simply unfathomable a Kiryu would ever fight for the Minamoto, much less betray his lord and country to do so.

Tadatsuna's body was still in the river, the two arrows protruding from it; Tomomori stopped to take a look at it. The arrows were alternating quills of red and white...it was hard to tell a lot of the time, but many families colored their arrow quills differently. Taira were solid red. What was the Kiryus' colors? He had learned this long ago, as had most other noblemen, but as he had never figured he would use it, Tomomori had shoved it in a corner of his mind he had yet to locate. It could very well be the thin red and white striped design, but that just didn't seem right to him. He wracked his mind. _Blue with a red stripe? Yellow, red halves?_ Neither of those fit in Tomomori's mind.

"Big Brother, is something bothering you?" Shigehira had made his way out of the water and sat down by his older brother.

Tomomori suddenly snapped back to attention. "Green and white. It's green and white."

"What's green and white?" Shigehira responded, confused.

"Oh, nothing," Tomomori answered. He didn't want to bother his innocent younger brother with this revelation, but something had become clear to him.

The arrow that killed Ashikaga no Tadatsuna was not a Kiryu one.

* * *

Outside, the Prince could hear the clashing of steel drawing closer and closer. It was over. He had expected this, but he was not at peace, rather, he had grown hasty. There was still things he needed to do. More to see, more to walk, more to live. But he knew that he couldn't. He was dead.

"My lord." The voice beside him had lost any indications that it came from the mouth of a man of over seventy years. It carried no shake, only cold, steely determination. "It is time for us to go."

Mochihito stood up slowly. His robe, white and blue, was pristine. Even the hem that trailed on the wooden floor was as the newfallen snow, untouched by any earthly grime. How ironic. How ironic that blood spattered everything outside: the fields, the river, everything was turned brown. But he, sequestered, was untouched.

"We are falling back to the farther chapel," Yorimasa announced. "Come quickly. My sons are buying us time."

Mochihito said nothing, but followed. He wondered, someday would someone, a poet or writer, put down these events, and the ones that were sure to follow, as text, and noble families read them to their children as if they were some sort of fairytale, the same as giants and fairies and tengu and all sorts of fantastical creatures, just as his parents had done to him long ago, when they read he and his brother stories of Yamato Takeru and Hikaru Genji and all the first emperors at their bedside, and Norihito would smile and go all starry-eyed, but Mochihito himself would wonder if those things actually happened so long ago...

His brother. As he followed the old man out the temple and onto the back of the horse outside, more and more memories came into his mind. The young boy who was so beautiful that he could easily pass for a princess, how he would sneak his way out of the palace, Mochihito following close behind, protesting that there were all sorts of dangers beyond the tall stone walls, Nori paying no mind and climbing them, his brother following close behind. How they managed to see the sunrise from outside the palace for the first time, how they cloaked themselves up, disguising themselves as peasant children, and wandered around the streets of the capital; as the Prince knew now, it was so dangerous, but that didn't even matter to his brother. Nori was always smiling, and Mochihito only remembered his younger brother smiling around him. Sure, they had other siblings, many brothers and sisters by many mothers; Nori wasn't even biologically his brother. But he didn't remember a single one else. Nori was special. He was never meant to be shut in the palace. He never should have been, but then their father abdicated and he was suddenly on the throne, and he was forced to marry, and have a child, and sit upon the throne, and be a puppet for Taira no Kiyomori. And then he was dead.

 _I ran away. I could have saved him, but I ran away._

He mounted the horse, saying nothing. The old man spurred the chestnut beast onwards, galloping toward the final building before the temple grounds gave way to woods. The noise was almost deafening. All around, screams, whistles of arrows, the sound of bodies dropping, echoed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw nothing but red: red blood, red armor, red banners. The Taira were almost on them, slashing at the outskirts of their party, but the samurai flanking the old Minamoto and the Prince fought them off. Still, more kept coming. As they reached the small chapel, the red-coated Heike were all around. There were no more white banners, no white crests, no more reinforcements to help.

The Minamoto samurai, Yorimasa's two sons at the helm, stopped their horses, forming a wall around their father and Mochihito. The two quickly unhorsed. "My lord, please come quickly-" the old general began, and then suddenly stopped. As he dropped to a knee, Mochihito noticed the arrow penetrating deep into Yorimasa's arm.

"Lord Yorimasa!" the Prince exclaimed, hastily dropping to steady the old man. In front of them, the red river of Taira surged, only being held back by the thin dam the Minamoto warriors had constructed. It would not be much longer.

The old Genji breathed out heavily. "It is over, my prince. You run. I can go on no more."

"But my lord, you cannot be left here! All of our men are protecting you and I!"

Without a response, and with the most effort Mochihito had ever produced, he grabbed the old man and pulled him hard into the chapel, crashing through the door. They landed in a heap. Outside, Yorimasa's sons and the other warriors had been dropped from their horses, pushed back farther from the door, but still they bravely fought, even with sweat dripping from their faces and wounds gushing red.

Mochihito attempted to pull the old man up to his feet. He didn't want to die. He was afraid of dying. He was going to live, and he was going to make sure the Minamoto general lived, no matter what. He placed the old man's arm over his shoulder, and began to walk forward. And then, all the weight suddenly left his body. When he looked back, the old man had let go, and was crumpled in a heap on the ground.

"My lord!" Mochihito cried. "Please, hurry!"

A weak smile crossed Yorimasa's face. "Sorry. I already told you that it's the end for me."

Outside, only Yorimasa's two sons remained to defend the doorway.

"Why...why don't you want to even try to live?" Mochihito exclaimed.

"Let me tell you something, you of few years." the old man sighed, coughing before proceeding. "When you have lived as long as I have, you do not fear death. It could take you at any moment, and you just have to accept it, because you can do nothing about it. But I...even as a warrior, a samurai, one who cheated death so many times...all my life have I served someone else. I lived, but it was not my own life. I was not a master of my own fate. I never wished to be a war hero. It was something I just became. But now, at least...I can die as I choose. And that makes me happier than you would know."

The story sounded familiar. Trapped, being forced into things you didn't want to do but had to do. Being a slave to someone with more power. Ironic. It was so ironic. His brother, in a crown and robe and seated on a throne, and he himself, had no more power over their own lives than the common peasant. No, maybe less. For all their hardship, they at least got to choose what they ate, what they grew, how they made their rent each month; the royal family did not even have that. They were nothing but shogi pieces for the ones with real power to play with as they pleased.

The old man struggled to his feet. In his hand, a short dagger glinted.

"Listen to me clearly, you Heike bastards!" Yorimasa cried, a look of anger and determination that you would never expect to see from a man of his age crossing his face. "You will never even lay a single hand upon me!" Then, he plunged the dagger into his stomach, smiled a painful smile, and dropped to his knees, and the Taira surged around him, hiding what was left of the Minamoto force, once hundreds strong, that guarded the temple.

Mochihito was running before he even realized what he was doing. He broke into the forest, the sunlight being hidden behind leaves, his feet pounding on the packed dirt. The old man had sacrificed himself to save someone else. Minamoto no Yorimasa had thought nothing of throwing his own life away so that someone else could live, unlike himself, who had just left his brother at the mercy of the many hungry beasts of the court. Once again, he was a coward, running away from suffering at the expense of another who did not deserve it.

 _I never got to tell Nori I was sorry. It's too late now._

Up ahead, light shone through the trees. It was dangerous, but as he reached the other side of the island, perhaps he could cross the river and get far away...

He stopped suddenly as the island terminated in a rocky cliff. It wasn't far, but the boulders on the shoreline sat gleaming sharp as blades, a thousand points ready to pierce whichever unlucky soul would meet the bottom.

A cold, unfeeling voice came from behind him. "My, my. I knew we were forgetting something."

A flaxen-haired man, smiling ever so bewitchingly slightly, was in front of him, the edge of his blade straight toward the Prince, hungry for the taste of human flesh. His surcoat was the color of blood. Mochihito's body went icy cold.

"That pretender the Genji tried to call the rightful heir? Pathetic. Of course, trying to defend against thousands with barely a thousand of your own is pathetic in its own right. The Scourge of the North was a bit too confident, isn't he? It was only because of my father that he got a good reputation, but then the ungrateful old man goes and stabs him in the back. Oh, well. He's dead now."

He didn't understand anything. Yorimasa never thought he could win. He had sacrificed himself for the greater good. That was always his plan, to give up his own life for the safety of his nephews. Those three...they would be the ones to save this land. Not Yorimasa, and not Mochihito himself. The Prince expected to die as well, but he had made it to the end of the island...almost managed to escape, and then...no one would stop him now. Not even Amaterasu herself.

Without warning, he dashed to the left, back towards the woods, and then, a searing pain caught the right of his face, so great he had to drop to his knees and stagger forward. He screamed, or at least he thought he screamed; it was faint and muffled...

It was only when he put his hand up to the right side of his head and it came back wet and sticky did he realize there wasn't anything there anymore.

The samurai stood over his prone body, smirking even more. "Going to run, are you, Your Highness? You really should have trained more. Sitting all day in a monastery isn't good for your stamina. By the way, I don't think you know who I am, which is a little sad, since I hoped you would...I guess not everyone's heard of the Wolf of the Heike?"

Mochihito, on the ground, felt a sudden chill and sense of dread. He had, in fact, heard that name. The Heike had a messenger of death among them, one that could not be beaten. One that would kill you with a thousand cuts, taking joy in your suffering. No one had ever met the Wolf in single combat and come back alive.

"Well, that would be me, Your Majesty. Taira no Munemori, at your service," the man announced, making a mocking bow.

It didn't matter. He had to run...

No sooner had he gotten back to his feet than another wave of pain struck the front of his face. He was sure he screamed again. His vision was starting to blur, but he could vaguely make out a flesh-colored piece of something on the ground...As his eyesight cleared for a second, he realized it was his nose. He was nauseous. The taste of metal was filling his mouth, and he tried to spit it out, but it kept coming no matter how hard he tried.

So much determination, and it was all useless.

At least he would see his brother soon. And then, he could say he was sorry.

There was a breeze. It was starting to pick up. Soon, leaves and dirt began to whirl around him, and then it made a wall, so thick he could barely even see the Taira in front of him. Then it stopped, and the island, the temple, and everyone around it was gone.

* * *

 _Am I dead?_

He stood on an empty, flat plain of grass, with mountains in the distance. In front of him sat a small mud cottage. His wounds still smarted, but he could stand up and walk again. Tentatively, he edged toward the dwelling.

"Welcome!" a voice chirped. "So you're the one I ended up saving?"

He whirled around to see a rosy-haired, rosy-cheeked young girl, dressed in a shrine maiden's costume, standing before him. She looked too happy, unsettlingly so.

"Who are you?" the Prince groaned. "Where is this place?"

"Um, I'm not exactly sure," the girl mused. "It's somewhere far away."

"Is this heaven?"

"Nope!" came the plucky reply.

"So I'm in hell, then?"

"Nope!"

"Then what am I doing here?"

"You're alive." She sat down in the field, plucking a stalk of grass and chewing the end before making a disgusted face and spitting it out. "If you were dead, I wouldn't have bothered taking you out here. You would serve no purpose then."

"Purpose? Why did you even need me? And you still haven't even told me who or what you are."

"Oh! Right, yeah. Well, my name is Kofuku. But technically, I don't really have a name. I'm just one of many, and we all are so minor we don't have names of our own, so I chose one myself."

"Kofuku?" Why was this girl, who didn't seem old enough to live alone, saying she named herself after a god of all things? Something didn't seem right to Mochihito. "What are you?"

Suddenly, she was uncomfortably close. She smelled of strawberries, but after they had withered on the bush and become sickly sweet. "I'm a god. Specifically, I'm a god of despair, of poverty, stuff like that. I need you because you have lots and lots of it. We all need to eat, don't we?"

"Wait, I'm your food?" He was about to turn and run. This girl was crazy. He needed to get out of there, fast.

As he turned around, Kofuku was still in front of him. "This is how you repay my kindness? Don't even think about it. Maybe I don't want to keep you alive. Maybe I'll kill you, cut you open from head to foot. That would make you despair the most of all, right? And then I'll feast, and feast, and feast! So if you want to live, you're going to stay right here."

"I do. I want to live." Mochihito repeated the words without thinking.

"Well, don't be shy, come inside!" Kofuku cheered, doing a pirouette into the hut. "Sorry about the mess. I had no idea I'd be having a guest." Inside were a couple mats and things strewn about the floor; outside there was a firepit with a copper pot. "Guess I'll have to get food. I haven't done this for a long time..."

"By the way, there sure is a lot of despair in this country. Something big is coming," she chirped, pouring hot water from the pot into a porcelain cup and tossing a few leaves in. "It's all so yummy, but my sisters might be mad if I eat it all, so I'll settle for just you for now. I felt Hat-chan and Vana-chan's presence where you were, too. Two big gods fighting...I suppose this will be very, very interesting!"

Mochihito did not reply, though. He had already settled on the tatami mat and fallen into a deep sleep.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

We're taking a bit of a break from Yato's adventures (which we'll get to in the next chapter) to take a look at the first big battle of the Genpei War! And yes, all these people are real, and the events did happen sort of in this way, although not quite. To me, you can get away with a history lesson so long as you make it entertaining. Plus, I like writing historical fiction, and this is not the last we will see of these characters (except the dead ones, of course, but that's obvious).

If you're wondering what the delay was, that's because I've just entered college. I know, big deal, and lately I've been swamped with homework and having to get used to the schedule and time management. So while I figure it out, updates may be slow. I just do this for fun...unfortunately, I have to have higher priorities.

For a little bit of info:

Yamashiro Province is the old province of Japan that corresponds to Kyoto Prefecture. The Byodoin (the temple at which this chapter is set) is still standing today, and you can go visit it. It sits on an island in the Uji River in the city of Uji, Kyoto.

The colors of the Japanese flag actually come from the red and white flags of the Taira and Minamoto that were used during this war, as this is widely considered the formative event of the modern Japanese state.

Again, thanks for reading, and I hope to see you again soon!

-mrcmc888


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